At the beginning of 2011, the Hartford Business Journal identified five newsmakers to watch. Today, we take a look at how the year unfolded for them and their organizations.
• • •
LAURENCIN: UConn Health Center finances secure, he moved on
In July, Dr. Cato Laurencin resigned his posts as dean of the University of Connecticut Medical School and vice president of the UConn Health Center, saying he felt the institution was financially secure.
The buzz at the health center heading into 2011 was an application for $100 million from the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration to expand research and patient care. UConn lost the money to Ohio State University; but the health center still launched its initiative after Gov. Dannel Malloy offered $864 million through his Bioscience Connecticut program.
“The majority priority for me when I started with the UConn Health Center was securing the financial future of the UConn Health Center, which was very much in the air upon my arrival,” Laurencin said. “I will always be very much indebted to the governor to put the capital on the table to move the UConn Health Center to the next level.”
Upon tendering his surprise resignation — coming one day after new UConn President Susan Herbst started her job June 15 — Laurencin recommitted to his medical research and practice, particularly in the field of regenerating and reconstructing ligaments.
Laurencin helped found the new medical field of regenerative engineering, which combines tissue engineering with technologies in stem cells, nanotechnologies and regenerative biology. The ultimate goal of the field is regenerate entire limbs.
The new UConn Institute of Regenerative Engineering secured private funding for its purposes and applied for a $25 million National Science Foundation grant to help achieve its goals.
On the business side of his life, Laurencin’s private startup company — New Haven-based Soft Tissue Regeneration, which he founded — has begun the process to take Laurencin’s technology for bioengineering knee ligaments to clinical practice.
“I feel very, very pleased with this year,” Laurencin said.
— Brad Kane / bkane@HartfordBusiness.com
• • •
RINKER: Year of turmoil ended in to solid labor deal
With Connecticut entering 2011 with a $3.6 billion budget deficit, state employee unions knew it wasn’t going to be an easier year.
The fight to save jobs, benefits and wages would be a drawn out affair. After rejecting a concession package in June, state employees eventually reached an agreement with the Malloy Administration on $1.6 billion in givebacks over the next two years that included a wage freeze and reductions in health care and retirement benefits.
“I wish it went more smoothly than it did,” said Robert Rinker, the executive director of CSEA/SEIU Local 2001, one of the 15 unions in the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition that represents more than 45,000 public employees and retirees. “It’s very tough to ask members to make sacrifices. While I think we came out better than any other state, it’s still a sacrifice that our members made.”
Despite the givebacks, Rinker said the concessions deal wasn’t all bad. It guarantees state workers four years of jobs security and implements a cutting edge health enhancement program that will include a greater focus on chronic disease management and wellness and prevention programs. The budget also ensures funding for pensions and retiree’s health insurance that will lower Connecticut’s unfunded liabilities and make sure benefits will be there for retirees, Rinker said.
So is there ill will between state employees and the Malloy Administration, which pushed hard for a deal?
“There is no such thing as a divorce in labor relations,” Rinker said. “Sometimes the marriage is a little rocky. But that is the nature of it.”
— Greg Bordonaro / gbordonaro@HartfordBusiness.com
• • •
BELLO: Optimism despite economic, language barriers
Despite challenges, Yvette Bello pressed on with one goal in mind — reducing HIV infection rates in Connecticut by galvanizing prevention efforts and engaging partners in care to keep communities healthy.
As she enters her fifth year as executive director of Latino Community Services, a Hartford group that provides case management and support services to people living with AIDS, Bello says the next few years will be critical.
“Not unlike the vast majority of organizations in the nonprofit sector, Latino Community Services is getting back to the basics while keeping an eye on our changing environment,” Bello says. “I can’t predict nor control what our field will look like in the next few years, but our goals for the next 2-3 years is guided by our mission and outlined in our latest strategic plan.”
Those goals include ensuring that Latino Community Services programs and services maximize client outcomes; and expanding the range and reach of the organization’s prevention, education and care services in ways that respond to changing community needs and increase the impact on at-risk populations within the area’s communities of color.
Bello said that language barriers present a continued and constant struggle.
As part of its response, Latino Community Services will begin offering “Introduction to Medical Interpreting” classes next year for anyone bilingual in English and Spanish who is interested in preparing themselves to help bridge the language divide for patients.
Like so many, Bello said the difficult economy has affected much of her work, including her planned development of a fee-for-service medical interpreting program at Latino Community Services, which would train translators to be more effective advocates for patients.
“Our fee-for-service plans are still developing and we expect challenges to continue due to the weak economy,” she said. “Sometimes, it’s easier to buy a new machine that can save lives than to risk doing something bold like changing the entire culture of an organization. I look forward to a time when more people are focused on improving health care for everyone in a culturally responsive manner.”
— John A. Lahtinen / jlahtinen@hartfordbusiness.com
• • •
FRIEDLAND: As fuel cells take off, Proton’s revenues finally surge
This was the year Robert Friedland thought 2010 would be.
A worldwide economic slump held Wallingford energy provider Proton Onsite’s revenues in check last year. But Friedland — the company’s co-founder, president and chief executive officer — finally had his landmark year in 2011 with a 30 percent increase in revenues.
The 15-year-old company had its first full year of profitability in 2011 thanks to growth in the Asian, North Africa and Middle East market — as well as the pleasant surprise of the U.S. market doubling its revenues from 2010. The revenue jump is mostly due to sales of Proton’s Hogen C Series generator, a larger, more expensive fuel cell catching on globally.
The company was the little brother of Connecticut’s leading fuel cell industry — behind South Windsor’s UTC Power and Danbury’s FuelCell Energy, Inc. — as Proton needed cash infusions from its owner and investors to remain financially sustainable. That changed when Proton cut its high research-and-development spending to focus on selling the products in its arsenal, expanding its sales footprint.
“We have to get the company profitable for the commercial projects that exist today, and continue to develop our technology for the emerging markets,” Friedland said.
Friedland predicts 2012 will be Proton’s second full year of profitability, as orders for next year are up 25 percent over where this year’s revenues were at that time. At this pace, the company could hit $50 million in revenues by 2014.
— Brad Kane / bkane@HartfordBusiness.com
• • •
BERTOLINI: A year of acquisitions, diversification and profitability
In his first full year at the helm of Hartford health insurer Aetna, CEO Mark Bertolini showed his appetite for acquisitions. Aetna pulled off three significant deals in 2011 and closed on a fourth, as the managed care company spent more than a billion dollars diversifying amid a changing health care landscape.
In the largest deal, Aetna paid $600 million to acquire Prodigy Health, deepening ties in the self-funded health plans business for small- to mid-size companies. Aetna also spent $202 million to buy Nebraska’s PayFlex Holdings, which provides account-based health plan administrator services, and $290 million to acquire the Medicare supplement business of Genworth Financial Inc.
On Bertolini’s watch, the company faced declining membership coming into the year, but lower than expected health care utilization by customers helped drive savings for the company.
Aetna actually raised its 2011 earnings forecast in the third quarter and expects to earn $5.15 a share for the year, up from its previous forecast of $4.60 to $4.70 a share. Still, the improved results didn’t stop the company from implementing a voluntary early retirement program to reduce long-term costs. That program reduced the company’s workforce by 1,700 people, including 400 in Connecticut. Bertolini also added a new title and joined The Fidelco Guide Dog Foundation board.
— Greg Bordonaro / gbordonaro@HartfordBusiness.com
