CBIA BizCast

CBIA BizCast host Ali Warshavsky speaks to Penn Globe president Marcia LaFemia about her plans to transform a Fair Haven building into a manufacturing training center. LaFemina applied for a grant to rehabilitate a vacant building and create a place of opportunity struggling to find a career path in the area. If the grant is approved, she said Penn Globe employees, as well as other manufacturers in the state, will be hired to train students there. “It makes sense to have manufacturers training manufacturing students,” LaFemina said. “That's not always the way that it is. A lot of time it's educators or others learning to teach the students. The idea was to get a broader scope of the manufacturing experience–that manufacturers are actually teaching.” LaFemina said most of the manufacturers who will train students will be bilingual. The students will produce components for many industries in Connecticut making it financially possible to keep the program running. Please rate, review, and subscribe to the BizCast wherever you get your podcasts—we appreciate your support! If you have a story to tell, contact Ali Warshavsky.

CBIA BizCast host Ali Warshavsky speaks with Hartford HealthCare president and CEO Jeff Flaks about the pandemic’s long-term impact on healthcare. Flaks says Hartford HealthCare is focused on challenging conventional thinking while using new technologies to better healthcare delivery in the state. “In healthcare, we don't want to go back to normal,” Flaks said. “We have to be better than normal. “Our being better than normal is ensuring everything that we have learned around infection control, around supply change management, the things that we have earned around different training and staffing and ways we operate the organization, the ways we connect with our community. “The issues around health equity which have been incredibly important, we have mandates for change.” Flaks said public private partnerships are crucial in achieving health equity. They have a new partnership with MIT to bring efficiencies to operating rooms and emergency rooms to make healthcare more affordable. Please rate, review, and subscribe to the BizCast wherever you get your podcasts—we appreciate your support! If you have a story to tell, contact Ali Warshavsky.

CBIA BizCast host Ali Warshavsky speaks with Fran Pastore, CEO and founder of the Women’s Business Development Council and Rafia Zahir-Uddin, vice president for global philanthropy with JPMorgan Chase. Pastore and Zahir-Uddin discuss the long partnership between WBDC and JPMorgan Chase to support women-owned businesses across Connecticut. Pastore opened WBDC’s first checking account with a $60 deposit 25 years ago at a JPMorgan Chase branch in Stamford. The bank is now a major investor in WBDC’s mission, including making a recent $300,000 investment in the organization’s Equity Match Grant Program. WBDC has distributed $924,000 to women in 52 municipalities in Connecticut since the program’s launch in 2022. “The first three rounds of grants we made, we had a goal of focusing on women of color and minorities and we achieved that goal with 30% of our goal of grants going to women of color and minorities,” said Pastore. “Our investment in WDBC is very much aligned with our mode of impact-which is supporting inclusive economic opportunity,” said Zahir-Uddin. Please rate, review, and subscribe to the BizCast wherever you get your podcasts—we appreciate your support! If you have a story to tell, contact Ali Warshavsky.

CBIA BizCast host Ali Warshavsky speaks with Paul Lavoie, the state’s new chief manufacturing officer. Lavoie took over the role this month following Colin Cooper's retirement. Lavoie spent the last 10 years at Carey Manufacturing, where his favorite part of the day was walking the shop floor talking to employees and watching products come to life. He said one of his biggest regrets is not starting in the manufacturing industry earlier in his working life. “I am passionate about manufacturing,” Lavoie says. “I am passionate about the state of Connecticut. I want all manufacturers to succeed. I want our state to succeed.” Lavoie has five key objectives as chief manufacturing officer: workforce development, fostering a healthy manufacturing ecosystem, establishing a culture of innovation, better communication and simplification. Please rate, review, and subscribe to the BizCast wherever you get your podcasts—we appreciate your support! If you have a story to tell, contact Ali Warshavsky.

CBIA BizCast host Ali Warshavsky speaks with Steve Weiss, vice president of human resources at New Haven-based biopharma company Arvinas. Arvinas is one of a number of bioscience companies participating in the Sprint Initiative—Student Program to Ready Interns for Next-Generation Talent. Launched by the New Haven Regional Bioscience Collaborative, the program is designed to provide real-world job experience for students attending Colleges and universities in Connecticut. Weiss said students will intern at a bioscience company, with an option to focus on areas like IT or accounting if they aren’t studying the life sciences. “We definitely see New Haven specifically as a biotech hub and we want to be a part of that growth and attract that talent and retain that talent to the area,” he said. The program coincides with the Life-Science Sprints in Connecticut campaign, designed to increase visibility and boost the growth of the state’s bioscience industry. The collaborative was launched last May by the Governor's Workforce Council, with industry leadership and support provided by the Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce. Please rate, review, and subscribe to the BizCast wherever you get your podcasts—we appreciate your support! If you have a story to tell, contact Ali Warshavsky.

CBIA BizCast host Ali Warshavsky speaks with Connecticut’s first chief manufacturing officer Colin Cooper, who is retiring from the role. CBIA, affiliates CONNSTEP and ReadyCT, and the Connecticut Manufacturers' Collaborative championed the need for the position, which the legislature created in 2019. The former CEO of the Whitcraft group took office just months before COVID-19 shut down the state. Cooper said his favorite part of the role was getting to tour the state and see the breadth and diversity of the state’s manufacturing sector. “There are so many companies that I have been to that I had never heard of before and I had spent my life in manufacturing,” said Cooper. Please rate, review, and subscribe to the BizCast wherever you get your podcasts—we appreciate your support! If you have a story to tell, contact Ali Warshavsky.

CBIA BizCast host Ali Warshavsky speaks with StamfordNext president Wes Bemus about the nonprofit collaborative’s mission to invest in the start-up ecosystem and generate economic growth. The state considers Stamford one of Connecticut’s four “Innovation Places.” State funding and grants are dedicated to turning the city into a data science ecosystem. Bemus said that while Stamford has seen a lot of large corporate companies come and go, many of their employees want to remain in the city. He said StamfordNext aims to provide resources for those who want to launch their own startup in data science. “Looking 10, 20, 30, 40, or 50 years down the road, what are the companies doing with that data?,” he asked. “How are they going to be looking into the massive sets of numbers and data from their customers and their clients and how are they going to benefit from it?” “This has really shown that artificial intelligence and data science are the real future for how the industries will be successful.” Please rate, review, and subscribe to the BizCast wherever you get your podcasts—we appreciate your support! If you have a story to tell, contact Ali Warshavsky.

CBIA BizCast host Ali Warshavsky speaks with Paul Lemmo, president of Stratford-based Sikorsky Aircraft, a Lockheed Martin Company. Lemmo was the keynote speaker at CBIA’s recent Made in Connecticut 2021: Manufacturing Summit, where he spoke about the company’s digital transformation. He also addressed workforce development, noting the company’s approach to to recruit talent from those taking STEM courses at nearby colleges and universities. Lemo says those graduates want to come to a manufacturer with the best technology. “It boosts our efficiency and effectiveness,” he said. “We don't need maybe quite as many employees, but also the skill sets are higher that we are looking for because the jobs are more integrative and more complex.” Sikorsky has partnered with Boeing to develop and build its candidate for the U.S. Army to succeed the company’s iconic Black Hawk helicopter. Please rate, review, and subscribe to the BizCast wherever you get your podcasts—we appreciate your support! If you have a story to tell, contact Ali Warshavsky.

CBIA BizCast host Ali Warshavsky speaks with Jean Pierre Bolat, CEO of MOVIA Robotics in Bristol. The company designs robot-assisted instruction systems to help teach children with autism. University of Connecticut professor and scientist Timothy Gifford founded MOVIA Robotics in 2010. Bolat joined the company three and a half years ago after a long career in the U.S. Navy and in cybersecurity. He was inspired by the company's mission because he has a son on the spectrum. Bolat said MOVIA’s system helps children on the autism spectrum focus, increase their attention span, and accelerate their learning trajectory. “They do some movement activities together and they have a discussion,” he said. “They learn how to communicate together. What we do is we have the child answer a question and the robot answers via a tablet. “The child can positively answer through a tablet. The data of the child's answers are collected in a laptop computer.” Please rate, review, and subscribe to the BizCast wherever you get your podcasts—we appreciate your support! If you have a story to tell, contact Ali Warshavsky.

CBIA BizCast host Ali Warshavsky speaks with General Dynamics Electric Boat president Kevin Graney. Graney is the keynote speaker at CBIA’s Jan. 21 Economic Summit + Outlook conference. Graney took over as president of the Groton-based submarine manufacturer in 2019. He says Electric Boat is in a period of heavy growth, driven by major U.S. Navy contracts. That growth requires hiring thousands of skilled workers over the next few years, which Graney recognizes as a significant challenge. “We are looking everywhere we can, we are expanding our focus area from the immediate area of Eastern Connecticut and Rhode Island to further and further out,” said Graney. “You can't watch an NFL game without seeing an Electric Boat commercial and that's how I want it. I want people to know we are open for business.” Graney will share further details about Electric Boat’s workforce development strategy and how the company is navigating supply chain bottlenecks at the conference, which is now virtual because of the surge in COVID-19 positivity rates. Registration for the 2022 Economic Summit + Outlook, made possible through the generous support of Webster Bank, is free for CBIA members. Please rate, review, and subscribe to the BizCast wherever you get your podcasts—we appreciate your support! If you have a story to tell, contact Ali Warshavsky.