november 13, 2015 ubj

NOVEMBER 13, 2015 | VOL. 4 ISSUE 46

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Zach Etkind’s Suiseys —half-suits, half-jerseys—are making major play for Upstate college sports fans - pg 14

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11.13.2015 | upstatebusinessjournal.com

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INFORMATION YOU WANT TO KNOW | ADVERTISING | 3

Advertising firm sees reorganization, digital shift

ASHLEY BONCIMINO | [email protected]

Advertising firm Erwin Penland laid off an undisclosed number of employees in its Greenville and New York offices last week, citing changes in client demand.

The layoff affected a single-digit percentage of Erwin Penland’s work-force, which number 300 in Greenville and 100 in New York, according to Chief Client Officer Joe Saracino. The “layoff event” had more to do with market dynamics than changes to Erwin Penland’s client portfolio, he said.

“We’ve done a lot of traditional advertising over the years … and more and more clients are asking for more social, more digital,” said Saracino, who said the firm plans hiring decisions around its clients. “Last week was nothing to do with business lost.”

For example, one of Erwin Penland’s newest clients only wants digital and social advertising services, said Sara-cino. Announced last week, California

beverage company Califia Farms en-listed Erwin Penland for its digital and creative projects. Another digi-tal-heavy client will be luggage company Tumi, to be announced next week, he said.

“The calls we’ve been getting, the opportunities that are getting present-ed to us are also digital in nature,” Saracino said, noting that efforts to “modernize” the agency have been ongoing for two to three years. “It was us trying to get aligned more with what our clients are asking us for.”

Other Erwin Penland clients include Denny’s, Verizon, The UPS Store and L.L. Bean and Frye. While its Verizon business has had some “puts and takes,” said Saracino, it will remain a significant client in 2016. The reorga-nization did not include leadership or departmental changes.

“The foundation of the organization over the last couple of years has shifted to be more content and brand experi-ence,” he said. “We’re trying to align our staff better.”

Erwin Penland layoffs due to ‘market dynamics’

“Last week was nothing to do with business lost.”

Erwin Penland Chief Client Officer Joe Saracino

Erwin Penland’s EP360 building project is scheduled for completion in 2017. The company announced layoffs this week. CREDIT: GENSLER

UBJ | 11.13.2015

TBA

4 | THE RUNDOWN | TOP-OF-MIND AND IN THE MIX THIS WEEK

VOLUME 4, ISSUE 46

A drone photo provides a preview of the view from the 10th-story rooftop bar of the AC Hotel, now under construction in downtown Spartanburg.Credit: Caroll Foster

Featured this issue:Q&A with CMI director David Clayton 6November Greenville DRB meeting recap 10Do you suffer from executive ADD? 19

WORTH REPEATING

Birds Fly South Ale Project will be opening next spring

at a redeveloped cotton warehouse near the GHS

Swamp Rabbit Trail.

Look for a new Planet Fitness coming soon to 300 Harrison Bridge Road at the corner of Grandview Drive in Simpsonville.

VERBATIM

On leadership“Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.”

Dwight D. Eisenhower

“Last week was nothing to do with business lost.” Page 3

“The folks that we’re training here are basically managing robots and servicing robots.”

Page 6

“I will probably have to find a part-time job of sorts; that’s

why I am interested in seeking an investor. I’m not really that interested in blowing through

all my savings.” Page 14


purchased the property for $150,000 in 2013. The 61 Hills development sits at the intersection

of W. Franklin and Dooley streets in Anderson, and will include five pocket parks and green space throughout the three-bedroom, two-bathroom

houses, according to plat documents. Founded in 1998, Homes of Hope has developed

515 homes in the Upstate, and has programs for rental and homeownership housing as well as finan-cial wellness training and job training.

Greenville-based Homes of Hope is moving forward with its 68-unit affordable housing project in Anderson. The $9.6 million undertaking – called 61 Hills – is the nonprofit’s largest single-site development to date, and aims to bring more stability and economic activity to the city, according to the organization.

The single-family development will offer ener-gy-efficient, market-quality homes for renters and homeowners at a mixture of family incomes. Units will be built on the site of a former apartment complex, which was razed before Homes of Hope

Greenville-based Green Cloud Technologies acquired Ohio-based ANS Corporation in a move to scale its business and diversify its potential custom-er pool, according to CEO Shay Houser. The acqui-sition included 11 employees and a production data center in Akron, Ohio, which complements its exist-ing production data centers in Nashville and Greenville, Houser told Upstate Business Journal.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, and no leadership changes were made in conjunction with the acquisition.

“For Green Cloud, this was our first acquisition with this transaction,” said Houser, who said company

growth could lend itself to another acquisition as soon as next year. “The growth rate has been pretty exceptional. Our growth rate from 2012 to 2015 has been in excess of 4,000 percent.”

Green Cloud also announced a $5 million investment from Spring Capital Partners, which was unre-lated to the acquisition of ANS Corp., said Houser. The investment will continue to build out Green Cloud’s sales and marketing team, as the company has hired six people and expanded by 3,000 square feet of office space in the last 60 days, he said.

“Our business is a scale business, so we’re trying

to add additional scale, which drives down costs, and we can pass that on to our customers,” said Houser. “They also use different technology, Microsoft-based versus VM-based, which opens us up to different customers.”

Green Cloud provides infrastruc-ture, virtual desktops, disaster recovery and backup solutions for customers in 35 states. The

company employs more than 50 people after the ANS Corp. acquisition, and was recently recognized as one of the fastest-growing companies in South Carolina. ANS Corp. is a retail and wholesale pro-vider of cloud hosting services.

INFORMATION YOU WANT TO KNOW | HOUSING & TECHNOLOGY | 5

Homes of Hope dedicates $9.6M affordable housing project in Anderson

Green Cloud acquires Ohio firm, announces $5M investment



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UBJ | 11.13.2015

After six years researching workforce strategies at the state level, David Clayton is ready to tackle South Carolina’s skills gap on the front lines. This month, the Upstate native took the helm of the $25 million Center for Manufacturing Innovation project and began putting theory into practice.

Slated to open mid-2016, the Center for Manu-facturing Innovation is an advanced technology training and research and development center located at the CU-ICAR campus. A collaboration between Greenville Technical College and Clemson Univer-sity, the center garnered a $25 million bond issue from Greenville County to build a 100,000-square-foot facility that includes 20 classrooms and labs, nearly 300 parking spaces and advanced machining and mechatronics equipment. Slated to open with 200 students in the middle of 2016, Clayton described the center as an $8 million marketing effort, $8 million training tool and $8 million research and innovation lab.

Upstate Business Journal caught up with Clayton – a Clemson engineer and USC MBA graduate – after a single week on the job to talk about the future of manufacturing, the skills gap and the industry’s image problem.

What is the skill gap you’re trying to bridge with this center?

If we’re talking about manufac-turing, we have this history of the textile economy, so manual labor, a lower wage, a lot of it. What we’re talking about here is advanced manufacturing skills. … The folks that we’re training here are basi-cally managing robots and servic-

ing robots. … We’re talking thousands of people – not tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands – that we need to train. That’s still a large increase from what we’ve been training, but it’s a subset of manu-facturing that really we’re here to attract people to and get them trained up in. … We probably need

6 | Q & A | INFORMATION YOU WANT TO KNOW

‘The world of opportunity has never been broader’New director David Clayton discusses his vision for the Center for Manufacturing Innovation


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2016 CLA2502016 GLA250Who: David Clayton, director of the Center for Manufacturing Innovation

Previous: S.C. Department of Commerce director of research; Resurgent Capital Services; Westinghouse Electric Company; General Electric

Education: Clemson University, University of South Carolina Darla Moore School of Business

>>

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to double the number of people coming out of these programs just to meet the needs of employers.

It’s no secret that manufacturing is fi ghting a dirty jobs stigma. How do you break that?

Well, it starts with the building, right? It is a big investment by the community, $25 million. It’s light-fi lled, lots of windows. … You’ll see, as soon as you walk in, all of this activity, and it really commu-nicates that manufacturing is an engaging, active career. That’s the hope, anyway.

Engineers, accountants, they spend almost all of their time in a cubicle. … But this kind of career is very active. You’re moving. You’re thinking. You’re problem solving. Good wages, and to be honest, I think for the fi rst time maybe since the industrial revolution, with the technology we have, you can be very entrepreneurial and build your operation. You can buy a 3-D printer. You can buy a CNC machine, fi nance it, start your own business building high-pre-cision parts. That’s never been possible before. I think the world of opportunity has never been broader,

and people just don’t have an appreciation for all that’s possible.

Let’s talk about robots. If automation is the future of manufacturing, will we need non-advanced skilled workers in 20 years?

Probably. Yeah, I think so. You can’t automate away every job function. There are certain things that people are just naturally going to do better than machines. There’s complex decision-making, certain physical operations that you can’t necessarily program a machine to do. … I think to remain competitive as a region, as a state, as a country, we have to invest more dollars in machinery and the equipment that our plants are doing in South Carolina, but then also the human capital side, which is what workforce development is. They go hand in hand; you can’t have one without the other.

Who are you targeting with this center, and is it ever too late to start a new career?

I think there are a lot of folks, especially coming out of this reces-sion, that are in jobs that aren’t necessarily meeting their needs. The average mechatronics, robotics technician makes almost $50,000

a year, average. The same goes for machine tool operators, CNC operators. That’s pretty attractive. That’s a good middle class life that someone can get into from this kind of program. That’s what we communicate to parents and students who are thinking about maybe going into $80,000 in debt for [a degree], or you can go in this career path, where you go in for a couple years debt free and make $50,000. It’s a good opportunity.

What is success one year from now?We want to have it just full of students. That’s the

fi rst goal. Full, at capacity, 200 on Day One. Of course, the challenge is fi lling the pipeline with in-terested people, which takes time, but it’s important.










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INFORMATION YOU WANT TO KNOW | Q & A / EMPLOYMENT | 7

“You’ll see, as soon as you walk in … that manufacturing is an engaging, active career. That’s the hope, anyway.”

David Clayton

Manufacturing hiring fl at, other sectors growing

Hiring nationwide in manufactur-ing was fl at in October, while employ-ment in professional and business services, health care, retail, food services and construction grew, according to the latest employment report released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Nationwide, unemployment fell to 5 percent. South Carolina has not yet released October unemployment numbers, but the state’s unemployment rate was 5.7 percent, the lowest since February 2008.

Nationwide, average hourly earnings rose 9 cents to $25.20. The average workweek for all employees in private nonfarm jobs was 34.5 hours, while the manufacturing workweek rose 0.1 hour to 40.7 hours. Factory overtime was up slightly to 3.3 hours.

The report is available at bit.ly/BLS-report.

CINDY LANDRUM | [email protected]

Up: professional and business services, health care, retail, food service and drinking places, construction.

Flat: manufacturing, wholesale trade, transportation and warehousing, informa-tion, fi nancial activities, government.

OCTOBER EMPLOYMENT PICTURE

4.4unemployment rate for whites

9.2unemployment rate for blacks

15.9unemployment rate for teenagers

$ 25.20average wage for all employees on private nonfarm payroll

26.8percentage of unemployed who have been jobless for 27 weeks or more

34.5hours, average workweek for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls (same as Sept.)

>>

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UBJ | 11.13.20158 | DEVELOPMENT | INFORMATION YOU WANT TO KNOW

Greenville’s Monaghan Mill area will soon include a 6-acre mixed-use park with green space, an event venue, walking trails and an expanded local business. Located on the old Monaghan Mill parking lot and across the street from the Lofts of Greenville, the yet-unnamed park will incorporate elements of Greenville’s textile history to elevate the quality of the neighbor-hood, according to planners.

“It has not been utilized for anything for years,” said Douglas Dent, who is working on the project through the Greenville Revitalization Corporation and the Greenville County Redevel-opment Authority. “It’s going to be a regional draw, and I think people from the surrounding communities will benefi t from it as well.”

Close to the Greenville Health System Swamp Rabbit Trail and ap-praised at $1.2 million, the plot is a gift from Burt Mosier LLC, the devel-opment fi rm behind the 194-apart-ment Lofts of Greenville and 150-unit Brandon Mill. At one point, the company had plans for a park on the property, but decided to donate it to Greenville Revitalization Corp. instead, according to Kelly Beasley

with the development fi rm. “Really and truly, it will help beau-

tify this neighborhood and help the community move in a positive direc-tion,” said Beasley. “It’s a beautiful spot to be.”

The site is already home to an adult daycare center at 21 McBeth St., which will be expanded by the construction of an additional 5,000-square-foot building, said Dent. The park will include an open-air event venue and nearly 100 parking spaces, which can be used by the Monaghan Methodist Church on the northeast corner.

Part of the reason the land went unused was because a portion is des-ignated as a fl oodplain, which means it can’t be used for permanent struc-tures. The park plan calls for walking trails on that portion instead, and could lend itself to interesting work from project partners at the Greenville Textile Heritage Society, said Dent.

The neighborhood is one of the more stable mill villages in the textile crescent, partially due to efforts by the Greenville County Redevelopment Authority, said Dent. Homeownership, for example, sits at around 50 percent, which is good for the area, he said.

“I think it will defi nitely be a com-munity feature,” he said.

GRC plans park for Monaghan MillPublic mixed-use space will be ‘a regional draw’


11.13.2015 | upstatebusinessjournal.com REAL ESTATE DEALS AND DEVELOPMENTS ACROSS THE REGION | SQUARE FEET | 9

SHERRY JACKSON | STAFFSHERRY JACKSON | [email protected] | @SJackson_CJ

Construction starts on Spartanburg’s AC Hotel

Construction began this week on the AC Hotel by Marriott Spartan-burg. An official groundbreaking ceremony had been scheduled Monday but was canceled due to rain.

The new 10-story hotel will be on the corner of West Main Street and South Daniel Morgan Avenue. It will be the fi rst AC Hotel to open in South Carolina with an anticipated opening date in mid-2017. Another AC Hotel by Marriott has also been announced for the future Camperdown project – the current Greenville News site – in downtown Greenville.

The 120-guest room Spartanburg hotel is expected to “serve as visual beacon and gateway anchor to the west end of downtown and enliven the pedestrian experience with outdoor dining, amenities and landscaping,” said OTO Development in a press

release. The hotel will have an indoor/outdoor rooftop bar providing 360-degree views of Spartanburg.

“As we commence development on the AC Hotel Spartanburg, it is obvious that this community is truly on the rise,” said Corry Oakes, CEO of OTO Development. “The strength of the economy in Spartanburg leads us to believe that this is the perfect time to bring another hotel to the place where we live and work.”

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Rendering provided by McMillan Pazden Smith

UBJ | 11.13.201510 | SQUARE FEET | REAL ESTATE DEALS AND DEVELOPMENTS ACROSS THE REGION

Five items were on the agenda for the November meeting of the city of Greenville Design Review Board Urban Panel. One application was withdrawn before the meeting, so the board voted on four applications – with mixed outcomes. With repairs still ongoing in the offi cial City Council chambers, the panel once again met in a small, but cozy, fi rst fl oor conference room.

GARAGE ADDITION AT 7 LOGAN ST.This application was to add a three-bay garage

along with an 887-square-foot upstairs apartment onto an existing property that already has a sin-gle-family home. The application was originally fi led in August, but had been postponed from previous meetings due to the design submitted not meeting residential guidelines on the commercially zoned (C-4) property.

City staff had not heard from the applicant since September, nor were any updated designs received. The applicant wasn’t present at the meeting, so the application was denied.

FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH AT 22 S. RICHARDSON ST.

First Presbyterian Church submitted an applica-tion to demolish two buildings on its property, creating a playground area with green space, land-

scaping and a multi-court area for the church and school. A church spokesman told the board that the two buildings are dilapidated and the church has no need for them. The church would need approximate-ly $1 million in upfi t costs to restore the buildings, the spokesman said. The church currently has limited green space now for kids to play during the day, so demolishing the buildings and constructing a playground will fi ll that need.

The church spokesman said this is just a temporary solution, as the church is also working on an overall

strategic plan as the “school is busting at the seams.” The strategic plan will be presented to the FPC congregation in January, said the spokesperson, and the plan could include some rooftop green space. The board said the demolition request was reason-able given the state of the buildings and approved the application.

JHM HOTEL AT 301 S. SPRING ST.This application is for a new seven-story, 240-

room hotel at the corner of Spring and Washington streets. While others have called this two hotels, it’s not. This is two Marriott brands (currently a trend across the country called double-branding) within one building with shared amenities. The hotel will be part SpringHill Suites by Marriott and part Residence Inn by Marriott.

Michael Kerski, planning and development manager for the city, said the city has concerns with the design submitted – a mixture of brick and stone – as it is very similar to others downtown already. When will we reach the point where we can start seeing outside-the-Southern-box architecture? One can hope, but the dream probably won’t happen with this project.

Much discussion followed on the proposed un-derneath entrance to the property along Washington Street. The DRB encouraged JHM and the architect to use the Marriott Courtyard as an example and to do a canopy-type entrance street side instead.

The board also expressed concerns over the color difference in materials and the banding on the

November Greenville DRB Urban Panel meeting FRONT ROW

SHERRY JACKSON | STAFF [email protected] | @SJackson_CJ

>>

The existing Wilkins Norwood sign on South Pleasantburg Drive.

Rendering of the proposed JHM Hotel at Spring and Washington streets. Renderings provided by ODA Architecture.



REAL ESTATE DEALS AND DEVELOPMENTS ACROSS THE REGION | SQUARE FEET | 11

outside, saying the design didn’t seem to have “rhythm” and will look dated in 15 to 20 years. Board members also expressed concern regarding how the windowless alley side of the building will look. The alley side will be window-less because of fi re code, but the DRB wants to ensure that the detail is still appealing to anyone walking down the alley. The board approved the application with nine conditions, stipulating that those conditions be worked through with staff and two board members.

250 S. PLEASANTBURG DRIVEIf a new sign is requested that

doesn’t meet the current city sign ordinance, it goes before the DRB. This application was submitted by Masstar Signs for a new digital sign board for Wilkins Norwood and Company.

The original sign is circa 1960s, said Bobby James with Masstar. His client, Wilkins Norwood and Co., wants something larger to advertise and

“create more awareness” of its business across the six lanes of traffi c on Pleas-antburg. Because of the slope of the land and the adjacent private drive, James said he was unable to design a digital signboard that would fi t within the existing guidelines.

The DRB discussed at length, but in the end denied the application and encouraged both Masstar and Wilkins Norwood and Co. to come up with a sign within the standards, stating that they didn’t want to set a precedent for sign ordinance exceptions and intend to uphold the existing guidelines.

Before the meeting adjourned, city staff told the DRB the city will be sending out an RFP (request for proposals) in December to solicit a consultant to review its current design guidelines and make recommenda-tions for improvements. The RFP will also cover best practices for parking too. The plan is to pick a fi rm in February and have results provided back to the city by the end of next year.

>>

First Presbyterian Church plans to demolish two buildings on its property to build a playground area.

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UBJ | 11.13.201512 | SQUARE FEET | REAL ESTATE DEALS AND DEVELOPMENTS ACROSS THE REGION


Revised design for West End Apartment Homes

After several public meetings and a 3-2 approval vote from the city’s Design Review Board last month, plans for the West End Apartment Homes on the Pendleton Baptist Church property at 1100 S. Main St. in down-town Greenville have been modifi ed.

While some residents of the West End neighborhood association have expressed concerns at past meetings over the project’s scale and lack of retail, most were in favor of the overall project. At last month’s DRB meeting, church pastor Marty Price said the church is in “full support of this project.”

Charlotte-based developer Wood-field Investments eliminated all fi fth-fl oor units along Rhett Street in response to misgivings shared during a neighborhood meeting hosted by Woodfi eld. The developer also agreed to implement a DRB suggestion to provide a much larger greenspace on the neighborhood side of the building on Rhett Street, rather than Main

Street as originally designed. “We endeavored to accommodate

as many of the concerns as possible, while keeping the development viable,” said Brian Schick of Wood-fi eld Investments.

A 2,425-square-foot retail space at the corner of Perry Avenue and South Main Street was also added, even though the developer does not typi-cally include retail in its apartment projects. Doing so reduced the number of units from 272 to 271. The Class AA community will still feature upgraded amenities such as a rooftop terrace with fi re pit, swimming pool, court-yards and fi tness and club areas.

An interior parking deck will contain 463 parking spaces – 415 for residents and approximately 48 for monthly/daily use, said Schick.

Construction is expected to begin in June 2016 with early tenancy available fall 2017 and completion in mid-2018.

Updated rendering of the proposed West End Apartment Homes on South Main Street. Architect: The Housing Studio.

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The Upstate of South Carolina is a beautiful area home to many businesses. It is also home to severe thunderstorms in the summer and ice storms in the winter. As the Cold weather approaches, and memories of past summer thunderstorms fade away, it’s tempting to forget the cold, hard dread that the lights might go out.

Most of the Upstate have already felt the effects of no power due to storms this summer. But the potential for storm related power outages is a year-round sleeping trigger. While you cannot prevent power outages, you can prepare for them. As a business owner I know just how important having power is to stay profitable and keep that competitive edge, so do the folks at CJ Machining here in the Upstate. CJ Machining is a global supplier of high precision, close tolerance products with exceptional quality. They specialize in the CNC machining of small to medium size precision parts. Power is needed 24/7 to produce parts when needed by their customers around the clock. In a competitive world, assuring their clients continued continuity of operations provides CJ Machining an advantage over many of their competitors who would be at the mercy of their local power grid. Virtually every function of their business is dependent in some way on a power source. From the communication with buyers, to the employee access to web tools, from the machines and power tools needed to tracking supplies, everything needs power. And power is needed to keep computer servers up and running. Any loss of power takes them out of communication with their clients and their employees. As peace of mind Carolina Generators installed a 150KW Generac Generator on location.

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Fanweargets

formal

Twenty-eight-year-old Zach Etkind is a character study. Like his trademarked, collegiate-licensed funky Suisey Fanwear – or half-suits, half-jerseys – he’s an exhibition of curiously juxtaposed features.

A Boston native, Etkind moved to Guangzhou and Shanghai for four years, where he taught English for a while and became conversational in Chinese, but now makes Clemson his home. He’s also a biology degree-hold-er turned fashion entrepreneur – an endeavor that emerged from his starring role in a semi-viral YouTube series he and friends created called “Donnie Does China.”

Etkind starred as Donnie – a fic-tional character he and friends “made up in high school” – portraying the everyday realities of a tall, white American male transplanted to urban China.

“Donnie’s just a blue-collar guy in Boston – just a character that we all knew living up there. He doesn’t know what’s going on, and the last thing he would want to do is leave Massachu-setts – he’d never want to travel over 20 miles away,” Etkind explains. “When I moved out to China, I knew it would be hilarious to put a charac-ter like this there.”

Some episodes of the YouTube series topped 400,000 views. In one popular episode, when the crew was headed to film at a Manny Pacquiao fight, Etkind’s friend Rob Wallace suggested he sport something a little “classier” than his signature Larry Bird Celtics jersey: a green jacket with Bird’s name and number on the back, “so it’s like a jersey.”

The Suisey debuted that night. The

concept is a little more buttoned up these days, so UBJ sat down with Etkind to tell the story of how Suisey Fanwear has grown to fulfilling e-commerce custom orders, and batch manufacturing and importing colle-giate-licensed apparel.

How did you start making Suiseys? How did you make the costume prototype for Donny’s character to sport ringside at Pacquiao?

There’s a place in Shanghai called the fabric market with all these fabrics, all these tailors, and you can make whatever you want. For the first one, I just got a green jacket there, and had a friend’s younger sister – who sews and is into fashion – stitch the name and number on the back.

That video went pretty viral on YouTube. Half the comments on there say, “Oh, I want one for my team! That’s amazing! I want a Suisey,” because in the video, I called it that. It’s literally a combination of the words “suit” and “jersey.” The first one I made was actually a full suit. Then I went to the fabric market with a Tom Brady jersey, and I got them to make a jacket like it in a week.

When and how did this start to become a legitimate business?

[The Pacquiao fight] was in 2013, but I didn’t start taking it seriously then. We didn’t get established as a real company until Dec. 20, 2014. We got an attorney, and trademarked the name Suisey.

The one thing that was a huge roadblock was, “How do we blow this up when we don’t have licensing?” We didn’t want to be these people doing

COMPANIES BLAZING A TRAIL IN ENTREPRENEURSHIP | JUMPSTART | 15

Sports jersey meets suit jacket in Zach Etkind’s Suiseys, headed soon for bleachers near you

EMILY PRICE | [email protected]

WHAT IS IT?

SUISEY: Half-suit, half-jersey – with team colors, insignia, numbers and a favorite player’s name to resemble a team jersey.

SUISEY continued on PAGE 16

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UBJ | 11.13.201516 | INSIDE THE CLINE CO. | A DAY (OR MORE) IN THE LIFE OF AN UPSTATE COMPANY

counterfeit, without the licensing, going about it that way. And so I first talked with a licensing consultant based in the U.S. while I was in Shanghai.

I always knew that to get this off the ground, I couldn’t stay in Shanghai. It’s a very U.S.-centric product. I moved back at the end of May of this year, and immediately started with licensing. We decided we wanted to focus on colleges first. It’s a good way to grow; we could just choose to focus on a few schools, and build it up through a few concepts to eventually make our way to the professional leagues. I thought it would always be sweet to get licensing with Marvel and DC, so we could make Batman- and Superman-themed Suiseys, and things like that.

Who are you licensed with right now? Why did you choose to start with those schools?

Currently we’re licensed with Clemson and USC. We knew we wanted to focus down south, because fans are so much more passionate than up north. So that’s why I moved here. Up to that point, we were doing made-to-order jackets – fantasy football teams, fun things like that.

This one guy, Morgan MacMillan, reached out to me; he’d gone to USC and had been on the cheerleading team there, then transferred to Clemson and was living with the mascot. So he found me through Ins-tagram, and said he’d like to talk. He said he thought [Clemson] would be a great place to start.

Morgan even put me in touch with the Tiger. He has his own custom Suisey!

Who has been, or is, officially involved in your business right now besides a licensing consultant and an attorney?

My friend Rob Wallace – who originally had the idea for the video – was involved for a bit, but got a full-time job and didn’t have time. My main partner is Dylan Kwapy, who still lives in Shanghai. I am on the ground in the U.S.

Right now, Dylan is mainly focusing on the operations, and he will help with the online marketing and stuff he can do from Shanghai. I will be doing the day-to-day, forging new connections here: business develop-ment, trying to find sales reps, trying

to find retailers. Dylan is out there working on our first larger orders right now. He’s making sure everything goes to plan, and quality stays up to par. He won’t be out there long-term.

Does Dylan’s day-to-day include working really closely with the factories, and exporting the product here?

My friend’s girlfriend put me in touch with her boss: this woman from Montreal named Amelie Mongrain. Her business is out in Shanghai, and she would export 200,000 suit jackets to North America for pretty large, re-spectable brands. She’d been living in China and running this business for 10 years. So we chose to go with her – we knew the quality would be up to par.

It’s hard to manage things when you’re getting stuff done on the other side of the planet. Eventually, we want to explore manufacturing in the U.S., or Latin or South America, closer to where we are doing the business.

Our next step would be, eventually, to find someone to invest. It would be great if that person who got on board had experience in apparel or the li-censed merchandise industry.

Are you looking to shop multiple investors, or begin an official fundraising process? How have you been financed thus far?

We would definitely want to shop multiple investors. The first one doesn’t have to be the giant investor. I think the first would help us grow, where we could go do an official first round of fundraising.

Probably for the next six months, all the money that we make we will put back into the company. I will probably have to find a part-time job of sorts; that’s why I am interested in seeking an investor. I’m not really that interested in blowing through all

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For more of UBJ’s interview with Zach Etkind, including his

challenges with college licens-ing, read the whole

story at upstatebusi-nessjournal.com.

See Donnie’s adven-tures – including

the “Pacquiao vs. Rios” episode – at youtube.

com/user/DonnieDoesIt

SUISEY continued from PAGE 15

>>


my savings. But if you want some-thing to be successful, you have to focus on it 100 percent of the time sometimes. … We have good momen-tum right now.

Where will you go next with licens-ing? More colleges? The pros? How is professional licensing different?

In a year, we will probably want to be licensed by six to seven schools, along with most of the large frats. There is a licensing process with frats, but it’s a lot simpler and easier than the schools.

With professional licensing, you apply to that organization. With college, you can get licensed with fi ve schools, for example; but with the pro leagues, you have to be all or nothing – it’s all the teams. It’s a lot more money, and we need to be bigger, because we would want to be taking advantage of that. The NFL is the most expensive.

What do people need to know about buying one of these Suiseys?

Now we’re putting in our fi rst batch for Clemson, and we will start off making 100 at a time. It’s going to be ready in December. Hopefully we will be able to deliver to people by the holidays, but it will be close. The fi rst batch is only

Clemson – but with the second, maybe we do 100 Clemson and USC.

There’s probably going to be a range in price – obviously, made-to-order would be most expensive. But this fi rst batch we make will be priced between $159-$180, not more than $200. These will be 100 percent cotton, which we wanted, especially when we were going down south – and they’ll be lined. Depending on what fabrics, the prices can vary.

What’s next for Donnie?At some point I would like to do a

series of videos based in India – “Donnie Does India.” If at some point we do a Kickstarter to do “Donnie Does India,” that would be a dream come true! [Laughs.] But for the next year, I will be locked into focusing on Suisey Fanwear.

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To sign up for emails to win a free Suisey and get updates on batch ship-ments, or to learn more about placing custom orders, visit thesuisey.com.

Info: [email protected]

facebook.com/suiseyfanwear

Twitter: @suiseyfanwear

Instagram: @suiseyfanwear

STAY INFORMED

>>

As a Clemson student and former USC cheerleader, Morgan MacMillan (right) put Suisey inventor Zach Etkind (left) in touch with the Clemson Tiger (center).

UBJ | 11.13.2015

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grafting veins or arteries from other parts of the patient’s body, but about a third of patients do not have healthy veins or arteries.

Switching to lab-grown arteries would help prevent complications because grafts would no longer be needed. And patients would be less likely to reject lab-grown arteries than artifi cial mate-rials because the arteries would come from a patient’s own stem cells.

Several patents and patent-pending ideas have been generated from the research, and a startup company has been launched.

For Dr. Simionescu, working with GHS clinicians and medical students is essential. Clemson researchers meet with clinicians and students on a monthly basis to report fi ndings and plans. They provide critical feedback on whether the team is moving in the right direction.

Two GHS doctors in particular have been crucial to the team’s success. Dr. Chris Wright, a cardiothoracic surgeon at GHS, serves as the lead clinician on the team. Dr. Eugene Langan, a vas-cular surgeon and chief of surgery at GHS, is also a member of the team and has worked with Clemson bioen-gineers for more than 15 years.

Meanwhile, Dr. Taaffe, an associate professor of industrial engineering, is working with GHS clinicians to develop an app that would – appropriately enough – improve collaboration within hospitals. The app, called Periop Mobile, would help staff, clinicians and managers coordinate more effi ciently when patients go to the hospital for surgery. The app could transform perioperative services spanning from the time the patient arrives, to pre-op, to the patient’s time in the operating

room, and fi nally to post op.The goal is to introduce

technology that would get adopted in a broader health care setting and that would lead to better decision making. Those better decisions would improve patient safety, reduce costs and increase effi ciency.

GHS has been critical in the development of the Periop Mobile app. Dr. Taaffe and the Clemson researchers working under him spent a lot of time

early on understanding staff needs, interviewing and surveying GHS cli-nicians to come up with the design. Since then, the app has gone through multiple revisions, all along guided by feedback from GHS.

Dr. Mark Pruitt, a GHS anesthesi-ologist, has been extremely important to the project. Further, Clemson-GHS embedded scholar Robert Allen is working closely with both Drs. Pruitt and Taaffe, and he is already making contributions that will benefi t not only GHS but hospitals nationwide.

This collaborative university-industry research has also led to new opportunities between Clemson and the Medical University of South Carolina. Dr. Taaffe, along with two Clemson faculty in management, will consider how com-munication, coordination and overall patient fl ow can infl uence how operating rooms are designed in the future.

Further, Dr. Taaffe is also among the co-principal investigators on a $4 million grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. The project, led by Anjali Joseph, is creat-ing a learning lab that focuses on the design of a safer, more ergonomic hospital operating room.

The Clemson-GHS research is but one example of collaboration. Many others at Clemson and across the state show how a university and an industry partner can work together for the common good.

Dan Simionescu and Kevin Taaffe

are Clemson University associate professors. Both recently won

awards that encourage collaboration between Clemson and Greenville Health System and were named

for Jerry E. Dempsey and his late wife, Harriet.

18 | INNOVATE | MOVERS, SHAKERS AND DISRUPTORS SHAPING OUR FUTURE

Pretty much everyone in South Carolina would like to see the state attract new industry, create jobs and be better positioned to compete in the global marketplace.

As Clemson University faculty members, one of the crucial ingredi-ents we bring to the economic devel-opment mix is academic research. But we’re taking our research to the next level by collaborating with industry, and our experience could be instruc-tive to others.

Each of us is teaming with Green-ville Health System on separate re-search projects that could be transfor-mative in health care. Our work is an example of not only how Clemson and GHS can work together, but how ac-ademia and industry anywhere can

unite for the common good.

It starts with recognition of s y n e r g i e s between insti-

tutions. In our case, Clemson brings to the table a wealth of research and educational exper-tise, while GHS clinicians make sure that the research refl ects patient needs. The collaboration gives researchers from both or-ganizations an opportunity to try ideas in a clinical setting.

Dr. Simionescu, an associate pro-fessor of bioengineering, is working with GHS clinicians to grow coronary and femoral arteries in a lab using stem cells from human fat.

The need is great. Nearly a half million surgeries are performed in the United States each year to replace diseased arteries in the heart and lungs at a total cost of about $10 billion. Doctors normally get replacements by

University-industry collaboration will takeS.C. economy to the next level

By DAN SIMIONESCUand KEVIN TAAFFEAssociate professors,Clemson University

Dan Simionescu reaches for the top of a bioreactor in his lab.


As a senior leader, your time is at a premium and all kinds of people are vying for your attention. Your offi ce is likely deluged with mail, calls, email and all other forms of modern communication from employees, direct staff, suppliers, customers, sales representatives, shareholders, family members, etc. It has been estimated we receive thousands of messages a day! You may have wondered, “Do I have attention defi cit disorder?”

With all the advances in technology, the opportunity for us to be interrupt-ed, distracted and taken off focus has never been greater. Technology has made access to us as senior leaders much easier, unless you have controls in place to minimize your accessibili-ty and focus your attention. Email spam is likely at an all-time high. Perhaps you have seen the introduc-tion of “interruption marketing” – those ads appearing on the top and right side of a Google search. Tech-nology has helped, yet also hurt, our ability to focus.

We are also becoming more accessible to our employees and others, which is a good thing; however, as you know, too much of a good thing can be too much.

Think about this: All the stakeholders who are vying for your atten-tion know where the buck stops – if anyone can make a decision or make something happen, it’s you. If you believe you might have senior executive ADD, relax, because you probably don’t. Yet, how can you tell if you are being pulled in more directions than you

thought were possible? See if any of these sound familiar to you:• Do you enjoy getting people all excited

about exploring new ideas or strat-egies to move your organization forward?

• Are you naturally curious and enjoy hearing about new ideas from mentors, advisors, employees or industry experts?

• Do you enjoy helping your staff overcome obstacles, solve problems or decide for them the next steps to take in moving some critical prior-ity along?

• Do you sometimes feel a little overwhelmed by your major prior-ities list?

• Do you end the day saying some-thing like, “Wow, today was really busy, but I am not sure I got very much accomplished”?

Assuming you have nodded your head at least once, what can you do? The fi rst step is to become aware of

the issue, which you have now begun. Making some basic and fundamental operating changes to ensure you are focused on great and impactful initiatives and are not overtaken by the distractions and interruptions will help.

STRATEGIES AND TOOLS1. Focus on your organization’s top

three to fi ve priorities to accom-plish your annual operating plan. Most successful companies have a maximum of fi ve key priorities. Having much more than fi ve really indicates you have no priorities. Once those are clear, examine how you spend your day. The most successful executives spend at least 50 percent of their day on moving key priorities along in some way.

2. Start your day the night before – and, no, I don’t mean add more hours to the day. Before you leave each night, plan out on paper exactly how you will spend the next day taking into account meetings, research, phone calls, thinking time, etc., to move the key priorities along. If you need to allow an hour or so to be available for addressing some unique or crisis situation, you can plan it. Stick to this plan and rate yourself at the end of each day and week.

3. Learn to say “no,” and say it much more frequently than you say “yes.” The most successful CEOs say no 50 to 100 times more than they say yes. This helps them and the organization maintain focus on the three to fi ve key priorities.

4. Enlist the help and support of your executive assistant (EA) to help you stay focused. Give up control of your calendar to your EA – this strategy alone will save you hundreds of hours each year in distractions, interruptions and unproductive meetings. That may be a scary proposition, but trust me, you will wonder why you hadn’t done so earlier.

If you really want a different outcome, change has to happen, and that change must begin with you. Will it be hard or uncomfortable? Abso-lutely. However, think of the impact you will have on the organization as you embrace these changes and put them to good use.

Do you have senior executive ADD?

By WILLIAM G. BLISSPresident, Bliss & Associates

STRATEGIES FOR HONING YOUR PROFESSIONAL SKILLS | PROFESSIONAL | 19

Technology has made access to us as senior leaders much easier, unless you have controls in place to minimize your accessibility and focus your attention.

UBJ | 11.13.2015

Will 2016 be the breakout year for technology and business? Futurists and some business analysts envision a shift from technology as a tool we use to a truly collaborative workplace where people and technology are partners, helpmates, co-workers.

Accenture calls technology “the newest employee in the workforce.” But like any other top draft choice, even the best need teammates.

Here’s a look at some of what is happening now in the human-tech collaborative and where it could be taking us:

Natural Language Processing has evolved well beyond creating sports briefs and quarterly business results stories for media. While those appli-cations proved the concept, today NLP is the driving force behind several

20 | DIGITAL MAVEN | THE TECHNICAL SIDE OF BUSINESS

By LAURA HAIGHTpresident, portfoliosc.com

Rise of the machines2016 may be the year of the human-tech collaborative, as industry welcomes our new robot co-workers

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Ergonomic human-robot teamwork at the BMW plant in Greer.

11.13.2015 | upstatebusinessjournal.com THE TECHNICAL SIDE OF BUSINESS | DIGITAL MAVEN | 21

major technology shifts, like ana-lyzing human intent and predicting human needs. NLP can currently scan across thousands of digital platforms to fi nd specifi c content and determine if it presents a positive or negative view of something. This is a nice add-on for a company that wants to know what people are saying about their new product line, but it is critically important for law enforce-ment attempting to detect the likely terrorist among a social media crowd-scape full of the dysfunctional, discon-tented and disaffected. Still, fi nding it isn’t stopping it. That requires the human partnership.

NLP is also driving the develop-ment of “anticipatory computing,”a function that illustrates the brave new world of the “augmented work-place.” This is technology that is ac-tively listening to what you or your other teammates are talking about and proactively providing relevant content. Having a planning meeting for this year’s trade show? Your tech partner is popping up lead generation from last year’s booth, weighted by conver-sion percentages. And maybe some information on new trends found through trade websites.

If you laughed at Google Glass (what with people twitching their heads all the time and all) and ridiculed those who plunked down upwards of $350 for the Apple Watch, you may be on the wrong side of tech history. Wear-ables are a big part of the hu-man-tech collaborative and these have been just the fi rst steps toward a new reality. Physical sensors that detect environmental conditions or physical changes, or smart contact lenses that can take critical measure-ments and even control drug delivery are in use or in development. Gartner predicts that 25 million head-mount-ed displays, fueled by a growing number of virtual and augmented reality applications, will be sold by 2018. Likely adapters are the military and health care, in areas of training and simulation.

A really interesting example of “wearable” tech and the human-tech collaboration is the exoskeleton(Iron Man, anyone?). Lockheed Martin developed the product to add strength and stamina for soldiers in challenging environments. A later iteration holds real possibilities for civilian manufacturing. The Navy is currently testing this framework in the industrial manufacturing environ-ment of shipbuilding. The skeleton enhances a worker’s physical capabil-ities, lightening their loads and en-abling them to be more productive – as much as 27 times more, according to Lockheed. This has tremendous pos-sibilities for civilian as well as military manufacturing, mining, exploration, and more. But another byproduct is the potential for minimizing physical limitations among aging workers.

Robotics is obviously not new, but often replaced humans. New iterations envision a partnership, like that at BMW where a segment of the assem-bly line resembles the human-tech collaboration envisioned by futurists. Robotic arms assembling car doors work side-by-side with human workers, augmenting their abilities and freeing them to do tasks requiring more manual dexterity and ingenuity. These newer robots are lightweight and slow, so they can be safely deployed in a human-manned workplace.

The unspoken reality in this new vision of work is that there will certainly be a lot fewer human col-laborators in our workplaces. Those who remain will need a far more complex skill set than we are prepar-ing for today. If we expect to remain a part of the workplace equation, our commitment to effective education will have to be at least as strong and forward thinking as our commitment to technology.

Laura Haight is the president of Portfolio, a communications company that helps small business make the most of the fusion of emerging technology and communication.

Stay in the know.

TheUpstateBusinessJournalUpstate Business Journal @UpstateBiz

>>

Contact Charles IV today to learn [email protected] • 864-233-5346

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UBJ | 11.13.2015

Sarah Sloan BatsonNamed a shareholder at Wyche. Batson previously served as law clerk to Judge Dennis W. Shedd of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. She focuses her practice on employment litigation and counseling and complex commercial litigation, including business divorce and contract disputes.

Brent AbbotNamed vice president of real estate and director of acquisitions at Pacolet Milliken Enterprises Inc. Abbot was previously vice president of fi nance for Forest City Ratner, where he managed sourcing, structuring and negotiating capital market transactions, fi nance development and operating properties in New York City.

Chris HalkowitzNamed a member of Scott and Company. Halkowitz is a senior manager in the fi rm’s Greenville offi ce. He will provide a range of services to companies in the real estate, manufacturing, government, food processing, retail, restaurant, nonprofi t and distribution/wholesale industries.

Ashleigh SutterReceived an Excellence in Accounting and Finance Award from the Accounting & Financial Women’s Alliance (AFWA). Sutter is a senior manager in Elliott Davis Decosimo’s Greenville offi ce. She is president of the Greenville AFWA chapter and serves on the AFWA National Nominating Committee.

Jay Blankenship Selected to receive the Jobs for America’s Graduates National Workforce Development Leadership Award. Blankenship is a regional workforce advisor for the South Carolina Department of Commerce. He was selected for his work in helping high-risk and disadvantaged youth.

22 | ON THE MOVE | PLAY-BY-PLAY OF UPSTATE CAREERS

DEVELOPMENT

Creative Builders Inc. hired Jason Norris as a project foreman. Norris

has 23 years of experience in the construction industry. He will assist superintendents in overseeing their projects by meeting with subcontrac-

tors and completing general carpentry and take-offs to ensure timely and quality execution of projects.

O’Neal Inc. hired Jason Jones as a virtual director of construction. Jones has more than 20 years of experience with engineering with a focus on

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>>


virtual design and construction and building information modeling. His

e x p e r i e n c e w a s g a i n e d from working previously with McCa-rthy Building Group and PES Struc-tural Engineers.

The Homebuilders Association of South Carolina recently honored Gabriel Builders as a 2015 Pinnacle Awards Best of Construction winner. Gabriel Builders was recog-nized for outstanding craftsmanship in both the $1.5-$1.9 Million Catego-ry and $5 Million and Above Catego-ry for new homes.

EDUCATION

The National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) presented Bill Dingledine with the Gayle C. Wilson Award for service to the profession of college counseling. Dingledine is an independent coun-selor from Greenville. He most recent-ly served as assistant headmaster and head of the Upper School at Christ Church Episcopal School.

MARKETING/PR

Infi nity Marketing hired Chelsea Lawdahl, Taylor Boyd and Lee Campbell. Lawdahl is a media spe-cialist assisting with the live DJ en-dorsement program for a variety of clients, as well as training DJs to in-tegrate social media into the program. She previously served as development coordinator for Greenville Humane Society. Boyd is a graphic designer working with a variety of clients. She previously worked as a studio intern at Erwin Penland. Campbell is a multi-media designer assisting with web and video design. He previously worked at Infi nity as an intern in the endorsements department.

PLAY-BY-PLAY OF UPSTATE CAREERS | ON THE MOVE | 23

CONTRIBUTE: New hires, promotions & award winners may be featured in On the Move. Send information and photos to [email protected].

VIP

Knox White

Named an honorary member of the American Society of Landscape Architects. White is the mayor of Greenville and a shareholder at Haynsworth Sinkler Boyd. He was nominated for his passion for environmental stewardship and belief in healthy, safe communities. Since its inception in 1899, ASLA has inducted only 191 honorary members.

SCOTT COCHRAN NAMED SMC PRESIDENT

Scott Cochran will be the eighth president of Spartanburg Methodist College, the school’s board of trustees announced this week.

A graduate of Wofford College, Cochran earned an MBA at Duke University. He most recently served as a senior executive at Performance Solutions by Milliken, and as dean of The Space at Wofford College.

Cochran has also taught fi nance courses at Wofford College, and is a Liberty Fellow.

669 N. Academy Street, Greenville, SC864.679.6055 | 800.446.6567 | www.propelhr.com

The “Human” in Human Resources

LEE YARBOROUGH

On October 8th, the world lost an amazing human resources professional and Propel HR lost a dear friend and teammate.

Linda Hundrieser served as Propel HR’s Director of Human Resources for 9 years. She was the best at knowing how to balance employee and company interest. She had a gift for making you feel good and for reading a situation. As a professional, Linda truly put the HUMAN in human resources.

The qualities that made Linda an excellent HR director were the same qualities that made Linda a fantastic person. She was always true to herself.

Selflessness. Linda always put others first. When counseling employees, she didn’t just focus on their work; she asked about their personal well-being. She wanted others to be successful and this was obvious to all. In fact, there were many times that she delivered bad news or had to terminate people. I witnessed many of these moments and was amazed that people always hugged her and thanked her. People understood that she was doing what was best for them and the company and there were no hard feelings.

Loyalty. Linda was loyal to the company as well as to her profession. She believed in the value of human resources and knew that successful companies were strategic in regards to their human capital. She was always supportive of the overall business needs of an organization but never stopped acting as the employee advocate.

Calm. Linda had a voice that was slow and soothing. Mistakes are often made in the HR realm due to people reacting without thinking. Linda always helped people calm down and think before acting. Her cadence and rhythm of voice would allow you to take a breath and think of the next steps rationally.

Positive Attitude. Linda ALWAYS had a smile on her face. Even when she was going through her own health battles, she managed to smile and keep fighting. She spread her sunshine to all her met her and one always felt a little better after spending time with Linda.

Linda was a dynamic force in our office and in our industry. She will be greatly missed. It was my privilege to work with Linda for 9 years and I am eternally grateful for that. I learned a lot from her and I know that her lessons will always be with me.

Too often, HR is about profitability, scalability and liability, but Linda knew and taught others that HR is about HUMANS. The people who make our businesses successful. If we follow Linda’s example and focus more on the people, the rest will follow.

>>

UBJ | 11.13.2015

Automotive parts supplier establishing HQ at CU-ICAR

JTEKT North America is investing $1.75 million to establish an operational headquarters at CU-ICAR. The investment will create 27 jobs in Greenville.

The company is a supplier of automotive steering and driveline components.

JTEKT Corporation was established in January 2006 through the merger of bearing manufacturer Koyo Seiko Co. Ltd. and machine tool manufacturer Toyoda Machine Works.

JTEKT employs more than 7,000 associates at 14 manufacturing facilities, plus additional technical and sales centers, in North America.

The company will locate its North American operational headquarters along-side its Koyo bearing product technical center at CU-ICAR. The expansion is expected to be fully operational in the fi rst quarter of 2016.

Hiring for the 27 new positions has already begun. Those interested in apply-ing should visit the company’s career page at jtekt-na.com/careers.

Walmart hired over 2,750 vets in SCWalmart has hired more than 2,750 veterans across South Carolina since the

launch of its Veterans Welcome Home Commitment in May 2013.The commitment guarantees a job offer to any

eligible U.S. veteran honorably discharged from active duty since that time.

“We’ve experienced a tremendous response in South Carolina to Walmart’s support of veter-ans.” said retired Brig. Gen. Gary Profit, Walmart’s senior director of military programs. “We believe veterans represent the largest, diverse, talent-rich pool in the world and are an essential segment of the next generation at Walmart.”

Walmart expanded its 2013 projection of hiring 100,000 veterans nationwide by 2018, increasing the projection to 250,000 veterans by the end of 2020. Walmart has hired more than 107,000 veterans since May 2013.

Fluor completes oil sands projectFluor Corporation completed the construction of Shell’s Quest carbon capture

and storage (CCS) project near Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, Canada. The Athabasca oil sands project was delivered under budget and on schedule,

the company said. In order to minimize the

capital costs of the new facility and reduce disruptions to the existing operating facility, Fluor implemented 3rd Gen Modular Execution strategy to fabricate the interlocking modules offsite and then deliver them for installation.

The design approach, which compresses the space requirements of a typical plant, reduced material quantities and the construction labor hours required in the field. The approach also delivered capital efficiencies to the project and shortened the time to completion following delivery of the final module.

The project had a safety performance that achieved a zero lost time incident rate with more than 1.3 million hours worked.

The Quest CCS project will capture approximately 1 million metric tons of carbon dioxide per year from the Scotford Upgrader and store it deep underground. The project was recognized as a 2015 Global Best Project by Engineering News-Record in the Power/Industrial category and is a finalist for the 2015 Platts Global Energy Awards Engineering Project of the Year.

Milliken honored for supporting Spartanburg arts

Chapman Cultural Center rec-ognized Milliken & Company as its leading 2015 Cultural Champion.

“Milliken has supported the arts in Spartanburg throughout the company’s history,” Chapman President Jennifer Evins said. “Not only has Milliken supported Chapman with unwavering financial support, the company has provided us with valuable business leadership, encouraged businesses to support the arts through the Milliken Challenge and opened many doors to advance our mission to provide cultural leadership in Spar-tanburg County.”

Also recognized was Dr. James Ray, who received the annual Cultural Cham-pion Educator of the Year Award. As superintendent of Spartanburg County School District 3, Ray led support for the Muse Machine program for 17 years to ensure that every school in his district was a member of the program, often describing it as “the best bargain in town” for his students.

UCW Logistics expandsinto Winston-Salem

UCW Logistics, a provider of third-party logistics and managed freight solutions headquartered in Greenville, announced the compa-ny’s continued expansion this week with a new office in Winston-Salem, N.C., along with the addition of six new team members. The new team will help the company as it continues to build service offerings including truck brokerage, managed freight solutions and international freight management, the company said in a statement.

“This expansion was driven by the opportunity to add logistics experts who have worked together in the industry for many years,” said Evan Cramer, senior vice president for UCW Logistics. “They live in the Winston-Salem area, and we couldn’t resist the chance to pick up that kind of expertise.”

The Winston-Salem offi ce currently employs six team members, and Cramer anticipates adding two more employees over the next six to nine months and foresees the offi ce expanding to 12 employees in three years.

24 | THE FINE PRINT | BUSINESS BRIEFS YOU CAN’T MISS

11.13.2015 | upstatebusinessjournal.com THE FRESHEST FACES ON THE BUSINESS LANDSCAPE | NEW TO THE STREET | 25

Open for business1

1. Sound Hearing Care recently opened locations at 1803 Augusta St., Suite A, Greenville; 201 Old Boiling Spring Road, Greer; and 857 NE Main St., Simpsonville. The company offers comprehensive diagnostic hearing services. For more information, visit soundhearingnow.com.

2. Harper Corporation recently opened a new location at 320 E Main St., Spartanburg. The company is a full-service general contracting firm. For more information, visit harpercorp.com.

2

CONTRIBUTE: Know of a business opening soon? Email information to [email protected].

TO ATTEND PLEASE CONTACT LACEY HENNESSEY, 864-679-8588 OR [email protected]

WORKFORCEDEVELOPMENTSALUTE.ORG

JOIN THE GREENVILLE TECH FOUNDATION

AS WE HOST A CONVERSATION WITH

CARLOS GHOSNCHAIRMAN & CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER OF

THE RENAULT-NISSAN ALLIANCE

THIS EVENT WILL FUND STUDENT

SCHOLARSHIPS AND OTHER CRITICAL NEEDS

FOR GREENVILLE TECHNICAL COLLEGE.

11.16.156:00pm Cocktail Reception

7:00pm Dinner TD Convention Center

UBJ | 11.13.201526 | #TRENDING | INFORMATION YOU WANT TO KNOW

RE: GHS WITHDRAWS PROPOSAL TO OPERATE GREENVILLE COUNTY EMS> Don Bourgeois “It was never going to happen with the 2 hospital systems working together. Toooooo many egos.”

> Michael Countryman “I was open to change, I think we would have seen a lot of benefi t from it, but who knows.”

>David Nathanson “Still hate that they say we operate at a ‘loss.’ No other county agency is expected to fund itself.”

> Clayton D. Ste� ner “Well, now we can look at bringing in Wackenhut to take over sheri� ’s o� ce. They run at a $50m loss.”

> Steve Cotter “So status quo. Underfunded and behind.”

> John Zaragoza “Agreed. HUGE opportunity lost. Now expect to witness ‘death by 1000 cuts.’”

RE: HYATT PLACE HOTEL PLANNED FOR DOWNTOWN GREENVILLE> Michael Badeaux’s Engineering Upstate Real Estate > Michael Badeaux’s Engineering

“More fabulous places to stay when visiting Greenville. .. til you buy a home, that is”

RE: ANOTHER WAKE-UP CALL FOR SOUTH CAROLINA> x921127 upstatebusinessjournal.com“Proterra’s job board now boasts several engineering and management-level positions at their new HQ in Burlingame, California.”

> JennyLately upstatebusinessjournal.com“Until we can produce the candidates for these higher-level positions via more rigorous K-12 standards, we will lose these opportunities. SC needs be as focused on investing in its residents as it is in new companies.”

RE: NEW PARTNER CHOSEN FOR SCOTT TOWERS REDEVELOPMENT> Chris Thomas upstatebusinessjournal.com“So this means only 67 families will get a� ordable housing and the rest will be market rate? How many people lived in Scott Towers? Somehow this doesn’t sound like it is going to meet the need for low-income housing for seniors in the community.”

BIZ BUZZ The top 5 stories from last week’s issue ranked by shareability score

1. GHS withdraws proposal to operate Greenville County EMS

2. Hyatt Place Hotel planned for downtown Greenville

3. Duke scraps plans for substation, transmission line

4. GrandSouth expands to Greer with fourth branch

5. Greenville-based GE Power & Water combines with Alstom Power to form GE Power

OVERHEARD @ THE WATERCOOLERDistilled commentary from UBJ readers

>> 199

>> 84

>> 79

>> 73

>> 133

>> WEIGH IN @ THE UBJ EXCHANGEGot something to o� er? Get it o� your chest.We’re looking for expert guest bloggers from all industries to contribute to the UBJ Exchange. Send posts or blog ideas to [email protected].

DIGITAL FLIPBOOK ARCHIVE >>

The layout of print meets the convenience of the web: fl ip through the digital edition of any of our print issues at >> upstatebusinessjournal.com/past-issues

NOVEMBER 6, 2015 | VOL. 4 ISSUE 45

After 68 years near

downtown Greenville, the Cline Co.

prepares for a Mauldin move - pg. 18

LEAVING HOME

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LINKEDIN.COM/COMPANY/UPSTATE-BUSINESS-JOURNAL

FACEBOOK.COM/THEUPSTATEBUSINESSJOURNAL

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UPSTATEBUSINESSJOURNAL.COM

RE: REFUGEE RESOLUTION

> @amorris_CJ “Refugee resolution on the agenda for Gville Co Council tonight.”


PRESIDENT/CEOMark B. [email protected]

UBJ PUBLISHERRyan L. [email protected]

EXECUTIVE EDITORSusan Clary [email protected]

MANAGING EDITORJerry [email protected]

STAFF WRITERSAshley Boncimino, Sherry Jackson, Benjamin Jeffers, Cindy Landrum, April A. Morris

DIGITAL TEAM Emily Price, Danielle Car

MARKETING & ADVERTISING

SALES REPRESENTATIVESNicole Greer, Kristi Jennings, Donna Johnston, Annie Langston, Lindsay Oehman, Emily Yepes

DIRECTOR OF EVENTS & ACCOUNT STRATEGY Kate Madden

ART & PRODUCTION

ART DIRECTORWhitney Fincannon

OPERATIONS Holly Hardin

ADVERTISING DESIGNMichael Allen

CLIENT SERVICES Anita Harley, Jane Rogers

EXECUTIVE ASSISTANTKristi Fortner

HOW TO CONTRIBUTE

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UBJ welcomes expert commentary from business leaders on timely news topics related to their specialties. Guest columns run 700-800 words. Contact Executive Editor Susan Clary Simmons at [email protected] to submit an article for consideration.

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IN THIS WEEK’S ISSUE OF UBJ? WANT A COPY FOR YOUR LOBBY?

Order a reprint today, PDFs available for $25. For more information, contact Anita Harley 864.679.1205 or

[email protected]

20 Upstate bUsiness joUrnal November 1, 2013

UBJ milestone

Solve. Serve. Grow. Those three words summarize Jackson Marketing Group’s guiding principles, and ac-cording to owner Larry Jackson, form the motivation that has kept the firm thriving for the past 25 years.

Jackson graduated from Bob Jones University with a degree in video and film production and started his 41-year career in the communications industry with the U.S. Army’s Public Information Office. He served during

Vietnam, where he said he was “luckily” stationed in the middle of Texas at Fort Hood.

He left the service and went to work in public affairs and motorsports at Ford Motor Company in Detroit. After a stint at Bell and Howell, where he was responsible for managing Ford’s dealer marketing and training, the entrepreneurial bug hit and he co-founded Jackson-Dawson Mar-keting Communications, a company specializing in dealer training and product launches for the auto indus-try in 1980.

In 1987, Jackson wanted to move back south and thought Greenville would be a good fit. An avid pilot, he

learned of an opportunity to purchase Cornerstone Aviation, a fixed base operation (FBO) that served as a service station for the Greenville Downtown Airport, providing fuel, maintenance and storage.

In fact, when he started the Green-ville office of what is now Jackson Marketing Group (JMG) in 1988, the offices were housed on the second floor in an airport hangar.

“Clients would get distracted by the airplanes in the hangars and we’d have to corral them to get back up-stairs to the meeting,” Jackson said.

Jackson sold the FBO in 1993, but says it was a great way to get to know Greenville’s fathers and leaders

Jackson Marketing Group celebrates 25 yearsBy sherry Jackson | staff | [email protected]

>>

Chairman larry Jackson, Jackson marketing Group. Photos by Greg Beckner / Staff

November 1, 2013 Upstate bUsiness joUrnal 21

UBJ milestone

with a majority of them utilizing the general aviation airport as a

“corporate gateway to the city.”In 1997, Jackson and his son,

Darrell, launched Jackson Motor-sports Group. The new division was designed to sell race tires and go to racetracks to sell and mount the tires. Darrell Jackson now serves as president of the motorsports group and Larry Jackson has two other children and a son-in-law who work there. Jackson said all his children started at the bottom and “earned their way up.”

Jackson kept the Jackson-Dawson branches in Detroit and others in Los Angeles and New York until he sold his portion of that partnership in 2009 as part of his estate plan-ning.

The company now operates a small office in Charlotte, but its main headquarters are in Greenville in a large office space off Woodruff Road, complete with a vision gallery that displays local artwork and an audi-torium Jackson makes available for non-profit use. The Motor-sports Group is housed in an additional 26,000 square feet building just down the street, and the agency is currently looking for another 20,000 square feet.

Jackson said JMG has expand-ed into other verticals such as financial, healthcare, manufac-turing and pro-bono work, but still has a strong focus on the auto industry and transportation. It’s

also one of the few marketing com-panies in South Carolina to handle all aspects of a project in-house, with four suites handling video production, copywriting, media and research and web design.

Clients include heavyweights such as BMW, Bob Jones University, the Peace Center, Michelin and Sage Automotive. Recent projects have included an interactive mobile appli-cation for Milliken’s arboretum and 600-acre Spartanburg campus and a marketing campaign for the 2013 Big League World Series.

“In my opinion, our greatest single achievement is the longevity of our client relationships,” said Darrell Jackson. “Our first client from back in 1988 is still a client today. I can count on one hand the number of clients who have gone elsewhere in the past decade.”

Larry Jackson says his Christian faith and belief in service to others, coupled with business values rooted in solving clients’ problems, have kept

him going and growing his business over the years. He is passionate about giving back and outreach to non-prof-its. The company was recently awarded the Community Foundation Spirit Award.

The company reaffirmed its com-mitment to serving the community last week by celebrating its 25th an-niversary with a birthday party and a 25-hour Serve-A-Thon partnership with Hands on Greenville and Habitat for Humanity. JMG’s 103 full-time employees worked in shifts around the clock on October 22 and 23 to help construct a house for a deserving family.

As Jackson inches towards retire-ment, he says he hasn’t quite figured out his succession plan yet, but sees the companies staying under the same umbrella. He wants to continue to strategically grow the business.

“From the beginning, my father has taught me that this business is all about our people – both our clients and our associates,” said his son,

Darrell. “We have created a focus and a culture that strives to solve problems, serve people and grow careers.”

Darrell Jackson said he wants to “continue helping lead a culture where we solve, serve and grow. If we are successful, we will continue to grow towards our ultimate goal of becoming the leading integrated marketing communications brand in the Southeast.”

jackson Marketing Group’s 25 Years1988 Jackson Dawson opens in Greenville at Downtown Airport

2003 motorsports Division acquires an additional 26,000 sq. ft. of warehouse space

1998 Jackson Dawson moves to task industrial Court

1997 Jackson Dawson launches

motorsports Division

2009-2012 Jackson marketing Group named a top BtoB agency by

BtoB magazine 4 years running

2012 Jackson marketing Group recognized by Community Foundation

with Creative spirit Award

2009 Jackson Dawson changes name to Jackson

marketing Group when larry sells his partnership

in Detroit and lA

1988 19981993 2003 2008

1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011

1990 Jackson Dawson acquires therapon marketing Group and moves to Piedmont

office Center on Villa.

2011 Jackson marketing Group/Jackson motorsports

Group employee base reaches 100 people

pro-bono/non-proFit Clients

American Red Cross of Western Carolinas

Metropolitan Arts CouncilArtisphere

Big League World SeriesThe Wilds

Advance SCSouth Carolina Charities, Inc.

Aloft

Hidden Treasure Christian School

CoMMUnitY inVolVeMent & boarD positions

lArry JACkson (ChAirmAn): Bob Jones University Board chairman, The Wilds Christian Camp and Conference Center board member, Gospel Fellowship Association board member, Past Greenville Area Development Corporation board member, Past Chamber of Commerce Headquarters Recruiting Committee member, Past Greenville Tech Foundation board member

David Jones (Vice President Client services, Chief marketing officer): Hands on Greenville board chairman

mike Zeller (Vice President, Brand marketing): Artisphere Board, Metropolitan Arts Council Board, American Red Cross Board, Greenville Tech Foundation Board, South Carolina Chamber Board

eric Jackson (Jackson motorsports Group sales specialist): Salvation Army Boys & Girls Club Advisory Board

>>

AS SEEN IN NOVEMBER 1, 2013

IN THIS WEEK’S ISSUE OF UBJ? WANT A COPY FOR YOUR LOBBY?

Order a reprint today, PDFs available for $25. For more information, contact Anita Harley 864.679.1205 or

20 Upstate bUsiness joUrnal November 1, 2013

UBJ milestone

Solve. Serve. Grow. Those three words summarize Jackson Marketing Group’s guiding principles, and ac-cording to owner Larry Jackson, form the motivation that has kept the firm thriving for the past 25 years.

Jackson graduated from Bob Jones University with a degree in video and film production and started his 41-year career in the communications industry with the U.S. Army’s Public Information Office. He served during

Vietnam, where he said he was “luckily” stationed in the middle of Texas at Fort Hood.

He left the service and went to work in public affairs and motorsports at Ford Motor Company in Detroit. After a stint at Bell and Howell, where he was responsible for managing Ford’s dealer marketing and training, the entrepreneurial bug hit and he co-founded Jackson-Dawson Mar-keting Communications, a company specializing in dealer training and product launches for the auto indus-try in 1980.

In 1987, Jackson wanted to move back south and thought Greenville would be a good fit. An avid pilot, he

learned of an opportunity to purchase Cornerstone Aviation, a fixed base operation (FBO) that served as a service station for the Greenville Downtown Airport, providing fuel, maintenance and storage.

In fact, when he started the Green-ville office of what is now Jackson Marketing Group (JMG) in 1988, the offices were housed on the second floor in an airport hangar.

“Clients would get distracted by the airplanes in the hangars and we’d have to corral them to get back up-stairs to the meeting,” Jackson said.

Jackson sold the FBO in 1993, but says it was a great way to get to know Greenville’s fathers and leaders

Jackson Marketing Group celebrates Jackson Marketing Group celebrates Jackson Marketing

25 yearsBy sherry Jackson | staff | [email protected]

>>

Chairman larry Jackson, Jackson marketing Group. Photos by Greg Beckner / Staff

November 1, 2013 Upstate bUsiness joUrnal 21

UBJ milestone

with a majority of them utilizing the general aviation airport as a

“corporate gateway to the city.”In 1997, Jackson and his son,

Darrell, launched Jackson Motor-sports Group. The new division was designed to sell race tires and go to racetracks to sell and mount the tires. Darrell Jackson now serves as president of the motorsports group and Larry Jackson has two other children and a son-in-law who work there. Jackson said all his children started at the bottom and “earned their way up.”

Jackson kept the Jackson-Dawson branches in Detroit and others in Los Angeles and New York until he sold his portion of that partnership in 2009 as part of his estate plan-ning.

The company now operates a small office in Charlotte, but its main headquarters are in Greenville in a large office space off Woodruff Road, complete with a vision gallery that displays local artwork and an audi-torium Jackson makes available for non-profit use. The Motor-sports Group is housed in an additional 26,000 square feet building just down the street, and the agency is currently looking for another 20,000 square feet.

Jackson said JMG has expand-ed into other verticals such as financial, healthcare, manufac-turing and pro-bono work, but still has a strong focus on the auto industry and transportation. It’s

also one of the few marketing com-panies in South Carolina to handle all aspects of a project in-house, with four suites handling video production, copywriting, media and research and web design.

Clients include heavyweights such as BMW, Bob Jones University, the Peace Center, Michelin and Sage Automotive. Recent projects have included an interactive mobile appli-cation for Milliken’s arboretum and 600-acre Spartanburg campus and a marketing campaign for the 2013 Big League World Series.

“In my opinion, our greatest single achievement is the longevity of our client relationships,” said Darrell Jackson. “Our first client from back in 1988 is still a client today. I can count on one hand the number of clients who have gone elsewhere in the past decade.”

Larry Jackson says his Christian faith and belief in service to others, coupled with business values rooted in solving clients’ problems, have kept

him going and growing his business over the years. He is passionate about giving back and outreach to non-prof-giving back and outreach to non-prof-giving back and outreach to non-profits. The company was recently awarded the Community Foundation Spirit Award.

The company reaffirmed its com-mitment to serving the community last week by celebrating its 25th an-niversary with a birthday party and a 25-hour Serve-A-Thon partnership with Hands on Greenville and Habitat for Humanity. JMG’s 103 full-time employees worked in shifts around the clock on October 22 and 23 to help construct a house for a deserving family.

As Jackson inches towards retire-ment, he says he hasn’t quite figured out his succession plan yet, but sees the companies staying under the same umbrella. He wants to continue to strategically grow the business.

“From the beginning, my father has taught me that this business is all about our people – both our clients and our associates,” said his son,

Darrell. “We have created a focus and a culture that strives to solve problems, serve people and grow careers.”

Darrell Jackson said he wants to “continue helping lead a culture where we solve, serve and grow. If we are successful, we will continue to grow towards our ultimate goal of becoming the leading integrated marketing communications brand in the Southeast.”

jackson Marketing Group’s 25 Years1988 Jackson Dawson opensin Greenville at Downtown Airport

2003 motorsports Division acquires an additional 26,000 sq. ft. of warehouse space

1998 Jackson Dawson moves to task industrial Court

1997 Jackson Dawson launches

motorsports Division

2009-2012 Jackson marketing Group named a top BtoB agency by

BtoB magazine 4 years running

2012 Jackson marketing Group recognized by Community Foundation

with Creative spirit Award

2009 Jackson Dawson changes name to Jackson

marketing Group when larry sells his partnership

in Detroit and lA

1988 19981993 2003 2008

1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011

1990 Jackson Dawson acquires therapon marketing Group and moves to Piedmont

office Center on Villa.

2011 Jackson marketing Group/Jackson motorsports

Group employee base reaches 100 people

pro-bono/non-proFitClients

/lients

/

American Red Cross of Western Carolinas

Metropolitan Arts CouncilArtisphere

Big League World SeriesThe Wilds

Advance SCSouth Carolina Charities, Inc.

Aloft

Hidden Treasure Christian School

CoMMUnitY nitY nit inVinVin olVolVol eVeV Ment& boarD positions

lArry JACkson (ChAirmAn):Bob Jones University Board chairman, The Wilds Christian Camp and Conference Center board member, Gospel Fellowship Association board member, Past Greenville Area Development Corporation board member,Past Chamber of Commerce Headquarters Recruiting Committee member, Past Greenville Tech Foundation board member

David Jones (Vice President Client services, Chief marketing officer): Hands on Greenville board chairman

mike Zeller (Vice President, Brand marketing): Artisphere Board, Metropolitan Arts Council Board, American Red Cross Board, Greenville Tech Foundation Board, South Carolina Chamber Board

eric Jackson (Jackson motorsports Group sales specialist):Salvation Army Boys &Girls Club Advisory Board

>>

AS SEEN IN NOVEMBER 1, 2013

NOV. 27: THE FOOD ISSUESupper’s ready – and so are opportunities.

JANUARY 2016:MARKETING AND BRANDINGGetting the word out on local businesses.

FEBRUARY 2016:THE TRANSPORTATION ISSUEGetting around in a growing region.

Got any thoughts? Care to contribute? Let us know at [email protected].

UP NEXT

CONTRIBUTE: Got a hot date? Submit event information for consideration to [email protected].

INSIDE THE UPSTATE’S NETWORKING AND SOCIAL SCENE | PLANNER | 27

DATE EVENT INFO WHERE DO I GO? HOW DO I GO?Friday-Sunday

11/13-11/15

Startup Weekend Greenville - Global Startup BattleNEXT High School2000 Wade Hampton Blvd., Greenville

Cost: VariesRegister: bit.ly/startup-2015

Saturday

11/14 Comprehensive Small Business Start-up WorkshopSpartanburg Community CollegeTyger River Campus, Duncan9 a.m.-3:30 p.m.

Cost: $69 ($25 for each additional partici-pant from same company) Register: piedmontscore.org/workshops/register/201

Tuesday

11/17

Shine the Light Session: Leading with an Exceptional Team Speaker: Patrick Jinks, president of the Jinks Perspective Group

Kroc Center424 Westfi eld St., Greenville8 a.m.-noon

Register: Nonprofi tForums.org

Athena Leadership SymposiumSpeaker: Karen Kaplan, chairman and CEO of Hill Holliday

TD Convention Center1 Exposition Drive, Greenville7-9:30 a.m.

Cost: $25 for Chamber investors, $35 for non-investorsRegister: greenvillechamber.org/athena-symposium.php

Wednesday

11/18 Tech After Five Networking for tech entrepreneursPour Lounge221 N. Main St., Greenville5:30-7:30 p.m.

Cost: Free Register: bit.ly/taf-nov2015

TD Convention Center1 Exposition Drive, Greenville7-9:30 a.m.

november 13, 2015 ubj

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