Issue 39 Dec.

2010

THE SUIT www.thesuitmagazine.com

Exclusive Interview with

Maria Bartiromo
“A Wall Street Tale”

Inside:
Dean Baker
On U.S. Economic Uncertainty

Mexican Cartels
A New Sheriff in Town

Health Care In America

A Political Quagmire
Entrepreneurship
Chembio The Rising Stars
Fighting Against HIV
 At Natures Organics©, our motivation is based on a philosophy of creating
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offerings, our unwavering aim is to combine the best in Green attributes with product
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With every item we create, we look to optimize the balance between using natural
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 Letter from the publisher
Publisher
Yes, it’s true – every year holds an element of uncertainty. But this year, here in Erwin E. Kantor
the U.S., people are more concerned than ever about the economy, the new health
care bill, and the security of our personal information in cyberspace. Chief Editor
Gary Stevens
We still feel connected to the economic collapse of 2008, we question the success
of stimulus money, we are perplexed about the Federal Reserve creating hundreds Managing Editor
of billions of dollars, and we are concerned by the rise of economic power in the Michael Gordon
East. This month, we cover those issues, along with a variety of opinions on the
subjects of recession, inflation, credit and unemployment. One thing is for certain:
unemployment is the neglected stepchild in this litany of problems, and the less Copy Editor
affluent half of the population is hit the hardest. For this issue, we interviewed Louis Reyes
experts who give diverse and contradictory diagnoses of the overall problem,
along with conflicting prognoses. Senior Editor
Jacey Fortin
Our cover story on CNBC anchor Maria Bartiromo provides a glimpse of the
woman, the journalist and the analyst. She appraises Wall Street’s role in our Fact Checker
economic problems as well as its positive potential. She acknowledges that the David Stein
greed of Wall Street contributed to the crisis but also emphasizes that today there Felix Badea
is more humility. We’re not so sure of that, however--not yet, anyway.

In another arena, what most touched our hearts is the story about an amazing Marketing
occurrence in Praxedis, Mexico. On the frontlines of the drug war south of the Monica Link
border, there is a new sheriff in town: Marisol Valdez, a 20-year-old college student
and mother of one. She put on a badge that no one else in town was willing to Creative Design
wear. This particular sheriff will be the first recipient of our Suit Heroes Award. Eric Daniels
Chris Debellis
Many questions have been raised by the passage of the recent healthcare bill:
the politics of the process, the constitutionality of mandating U.S. citizens to
purchase health insurance, and the expected benefits and costs of the bill. In our Suit Staff Writers
article on page 20, we explore those murky issues which, as of yet, have not been Becky Woolverton
resolved. By Christopher Faille
By Rachel Cerrone
The swirling controversy surrounding the Wikileaks story finds Julian Assange By Gary Stevens
at the center of its storm. He is certainly revealing some inconvenient truths this Michael Gordon
year, but it’s hard to pinpoint any real damage that has been done. The system Marina Tocon
seems to have concentrated its energies on stamping out this individual threat, and Mark Nayler
he is only one of the players in a larger cyber-war. It’s a fascinating story. James Partridge
Patty Hasting
As is our custom, in this issue, we also continue to profile innovative Jean Paul
entrepreneurs who are the source of new jobs and inspiration. They certainly do Daniel Horowitz
play a role in our economic recovery. This coming year will hopefully be a time Josephine Heinrich
of strengthening relationships, and we look forward to reporting on the uplifting Eric Daniels
stories of 2011, as well as those stories that need to be told. Sasha Haddocks
Mary Ann Vaccarello
Stay with us, and, by all means, may yours be a more prosperous New Year! Catherine Park
Lorenn Peer
Erin E. Kantor, Publisher

2010 DECEMBER THE SUIT 3

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Feature
8 Quantitative Easing:
What is it? What is its effect?
12
10 The Economic Forecast
Uncertainty
12 An exclusive with
Maria Bartiromo;
A Wall Street Tale
15 Avature The Top
Recruiting CRM Solution

16 A Clash of Capitalisms

18 Mexico’s Drug War:

There’s a New Sheriff in Town
21 Cartel’s Tentacles Reach
Colorado Town
22 Justice in a Lawless Cyber-space: 29 A Trust Betrayed
Wikileaks, “Hacktivism” and the Barbara Suzanne Farley J.D
U.S. Constitution 30 Proactive Professional Solutions, Inc.
Innovative Consulting
24 Health Care Law Mucks
its Way through 31 Razi & Associates, Inc.
Political Quagmire Enhancing individual and organi-
zational performance
26 World Impact Network
32 UK Centre for Business and Public Sector
28 Anacostia Economic Develop- Ethics, Establishing a Conscience in the
ment Corporation minds of business and government
34 News Group
Geotel Corporation

18 36 EDB ErgoGroup
The World of IT

37 Beverly Taylor
Easy Key To Life
37 JKE Graphics
Sketching Success
38 Criminal Defense Attorney
Michael J. Neville; Justice For All?
39 Lisa Ciota
Smooth Communications with Investors
and Shareholders
6 THE SUIT DECEMBER 2010
 Suit Highlights
39 Mobile Print, Inc. 59 Allour Massage Interclinics
More Than Just Paper and Ink! The Healing Touch
40 Peter Beales Roses 60 Chembio
World Leader in Classic Roses Diagnostic Systems, Inc.
Horticultural Impresario
42 Kinlein Institute 62 Cortex
A new Approach to Holistic care
44 Beal Research Support Services 64 NICC
Preventive Measures
44 Finding Her Way :
Luena Darr’s Journey 66 Cellular Wisdom
with Theotherapy A Fantastic Journey
45 Gange Goodman & French 68 MKV Design Reveals AD.apt
at Sleepotel
46 Hyman, Phelps & McNamara PC
Solving the Puzzle of Food and 72 California Dreaming Suzanne Furst
Drug Law Award Winning Designer

47 CodeObjects 74 A Bright Light in Anchorage

Modern Insurance Solutions
48 Technetix 76 Helen Anderson
A World Leader in Innovative At the Heart of Real Estate
Broadband
49 MASI Technologies, LLC 78 Bormann Eitemiller Architects
Oil Drilling Innovator
79 GUY Architects Artcic Architecture
50 Lewis Clark Recyclers, Inc.
Reusing Waste Wisely with Warmth and Practicality

52 GoGlo 80 The Count Basie Orchestra

Going Green the Right Way A life Long Connection to Count Basie

52 Aronberg Goldgehn 82 Tae Bo Billy Blanks

53 QRS Quality Response Ser-

vices, Inc. 84 KS Hyun’s Hapkido & Tae Kwan Do Schools

54 International Barrier Technology Inc

Protecting People and Property From Fire 85 The Stingrey Style and Substance in the
World of Body-Building
55 SEL/AMSOIL
Going Green with Synthetic Motor Oil 86 RR Auction Pieces of History
Authentic Artifacts at the RR Auction House
56 Reitz Consulting, Ltd.
88 NOVUSHOES
59 Exterra Delivers Water in Abundance Still Stylish after 35 Years
Drilling for Success

2010 DECEMBER THE SUIT 7

 Q uantitative Easing
What is it?
What is its effect?
by Christopher Faille
When the Fed buys bonds, it pours money into the U.S. banking
system. It doesn’t actually print the cash; it credits the account
of the T-Bill holder from whom it is making the purchase. If it
does this on a large enough scale, it can set off a chain of events,
which in the past has been predictable, in terms of interest rates
and inflation. The idea is to drive down the yield on long-term
(10- to 30–year) US Treasury Bonds. Then the holders of long-
term treasuries will sell off T-Bills, the low yield having made
it an unattractive investment. The money from the sale of T-Bills
then has to go somewhere, and there are only a few avenues down
which to steer it. Do those avenues nourish and stimulate the
economy? And what about the scariest side effect, inflation?
On November 3, 2010, the Federal Open Market Committee
(FOMC), the policy-making organ of the Federal Reserve,
announced a new round of bond purchases. Specifically,
the FOMC said that the Fed will “purchase a further $600
billion of longer-term treasury securities by the end of the
second quarter of 2011,” which represents “a pace of about
$75 billion a month.” The Fed began pumping money into
the U.S. economy in December 2008, in reaction to the failure
of Lehman Brothers and the ensuing failure of confidence.
That infusion of money has since been labeled Quantitative
Easing One, or QE1, while the current round is called QE2.
After the government has purchased a bond, the bond seller
can do anything that one can do with cash. Assume a lot of
T-bills are sold to the Fed by Goldman Sachs. GS can use
the money internally to improve the company operationally
or through marketing; it can also use the money to make
cosmetic changes like office renovations, or the money can
8 THE SUIT DECEMBER 2010
iStock_© Matthias Haas.jpg
be used to pay out executive bonuses or even to merge with
or buy the assets of other companies. But none of these
options get the money out of the banking system itself in
order to make its impact upon our overall economic health.
The real choice is from the following:
(1) banks can retain the cash or invest in corporate bonds,
stocks or any other investment vehicles to thus raise their
liquid reserves;
(2) they can give the money to their shareholders as
dividends; or,
(3) they can lend the money out.
The stimulative effect requires that they do either option
two or three above. A job creation effect also requires
option three. The mechanism which motivates the selling of
T-Bills, ironically, rests on the notion that, at first, the price
of bonds will go up due to buying pressure. Presumably,
in addition to the Fed’s buying spree, the higher price will
make the effective yield of a fixed-interest payment on the
bond go down, thus becoming unattractive to holders of
bonds who will sell and, in so doing, shift their money out.
But the yield itself is going up. As of December 13, 2010,
for example, the yield on a 10-year US Treasury Bond
was 3.53 percent. Last August, around the time Bernanke
started talking about the possibility of a QE2, the yield
on 10-year bonds was between 2.5 and 3.0 percent. By the
beginning of December, the rates on 10-year bonds had
begun moving up. In the first half of December, they’ve
gone from 2.97 to 3.53 percent. Similarly, the yield on the 20-
year bond has climbed from 3.95 to 4.37 percent. The yield zero, but it’s just not going to have any really big effect.”
on a 30-year bond has also risen from 4.24 to 4.59 percent.
Justin Hoogendoorn, managing director for the
The market prices of the bonds are not going up in response Strategic Analytics Group for the Bank of Montreal,
to increased buying demand, even though the Federal Reserve said, “It’s really more of a symbolic thing; they want to
has directly purchased billions of dollars worth of bonds. show that they’re doing something else to support the
Interest rates are not behaving as the Fed had anticipated. market, try and keep confidence in the US market high.”
The most widely cited reason for the yield anomaly is that
the market is pricing risk into US bonds that had once been Questions of inflation and devaluation are food for further
thought to be risk-free. As Ron DeLegge, editor of ETF Guide, thought, especially competitive devaluation. If anything,
wrote recently, “The perception or belief that U.S. government quantitative easing should result eventually in some inflation
debt is ‘risk-free’ is a wonderful myth perpetuated by academic and, in confluence with low interest rates, devaluation. That
textbooks which are in the process of being re-written” – a myth makes our goods more affordable to the rest of the world,
of security which may no longer be fooling foreign investors. which is good for exports. But inflation can make it tough
for middle to low-income families to afford basic expenses.
What has happened with the money that has been freed up by Of course, inflation can spur people to open businesses now
the purchases of T-Bills by the Fed? Thus far, lending activity has in anticipation of higher prices for goods in the future. With
not increased. According to the latest “beige our current lack of inflation, the desire to
book” (the official Federal Reserve statement
on line: http://www.federalreserve.gov/ “If we’re lucky, we’re stimulate inflation has been another dynamic
and a reason to support quantitative easing.
fomc/beigebook/20101201/default.htm), talking a couple of
“Banking conditions remained stable The Japanese used quantitative easing at
across most districts. Lending activity hundred thousand the end of their “Lost Decade,” an economic
was reported as steady or unchanged jobs, maybe lowering malaise which has been regarded as a classic
in New York,Philadelphia, St. Louis,
KansasCity, Dallas, and San Francisco, the unemployment case of deflation or a liquidity trap, but which
bears little parallel to what is going on in
while a slight improvement was noted rate by two the U.S. now. The state of this economy has
in Cleveland, Richmond and Chicago.” given rise to a state of fear which Bernanke
percentage points. is addressing with quantitative easing,
Nor are stockholders likely to receive Certainly, that’s better given that, right now, we have virtually zero
a dividend windfall as a result of QE2. inflation. Unlike the U.S. Federal Reserve, the
Indeed, the Fed has been actively than zero, but it’s just Bank of Japan did not buy its country’s bonds.
discouraging such expectations (go to not going to have any Instead, it lowered the “overnight call” rate
h t t p : / / w w w. f e d e r a l r e s e r v e . g o v / that it had been charging commercial banks.
newsevents/speech/tarullo20101112a.htm). really big effect.” The effect was the same, though – to flood the
commercial banks with excess reserves which
So the banks, as the first-order recipients of appears to have had a stimulative effect.
this newly created money, are using that money to improve
their balance sheets. In one sense, this is seen as a good thing. In 2006, economists working for the Federal Reserve
Banking institutions are investing in stocks, and to a lesser Bank of San Francisco had authorized a study of the 2001
extent, in corporate bonds. While the restoration of stability to program of the Bank of Japan. “The program did produce
the money supply and the stock market is a singularly legitimate some measurable declines in longer-term interest rates” in
concern, by itself, it limits the degree and extent to which an Japan, read the report, andchanges in the expectations of
increase in the money supply will have stimulative effects, as market participants about future interest rate levels. The
well, the limited degree to which it can address unemployment. findings also noted that, “there appears to be evidence that
the program aided weaker Japanese banks and generally
So far, there has been another perplexing development – the encouraged greater risk-tolerance in the Japanese financial
lack of an inflationary effect of quantitative easing to date. As system.” On the other hand, the report read, precisely because
Bernanke wrote in an op-ed piece in the Washington Post, “Low it propped up the weaker banks, the program “may have
and falling inflation indicate that the economy has considerable had the undesired impact of delaying structural reforms.”
spare capacity, implying that there is scope for monetary policy to
support further gains in employment without risking economic So in the end, no one knows what the effect of quantitative
overheating.” He uses the phrase ‘gains in employment’ easing will be. QE2 has just begun, but quantitative easing
even though unemployment rates have not come down. has been going on since 2008. The Fed is already hinting at
QE3. Two facts remain irrefutable: today’s lending activity
Dean Baker, co-director of the Washington-based Center for hasn’t increased and unemployment hasn’t improved.
Economic and Policy Research, stated in an interview with The major success of quantitative easing has been to maintain
The Suit Magazine (see adjoining article, “The Economic the stock market and reinforce the balance sheets of major
Forecast”), “If we’re lucky, we’re talking a couple of hundred financial institutions – this is clearly short-term thinking,
thousand jobs, maybe lowering the unemployment rate most probably delaying sorely needed structural reforms.
by two percentage points. Certainly, that’s better than  

2010 DECEMBER THE SUIT 9

 The Economic Forecast:
Uncertainty
By Rachel Cerrone
Suit Staff Writer

T he impact of the current recession has made

Americans pessimistic about the future of this
there’s good things happening within the US economy.”

country’s once-prosperous economy. The future, He believes that, while many people still remain jobless,
however, may not be as bleak as many of us fear. the economy has passed its lowest point. “There are some
people who are fearful of a double-dip, that even though
Nick Sargen, CIO and Senior Vice-President of Fort the economy looks like it’s recovering, it could still weaken
Washington Investment, confirmed that the financial yet again. There’s a probability that could happen, but
crisis brought the economy to its lowest point in recent I’ve reduced [my prediction of that sequence] partly
history. “Most people, including the National Bureau [because of] what the Federal Reserve is trying to do to
of Economic Research, the body that assesses if you’re make sure that we don’t have this so-called double dip.”
in a recession or in a recovery, came out and said that
they thought the economy touched bottom in the middle His prediction is based on quantitative easing, currently
of last year,” he said in his interview with The Suit. QE2, a strategy in which the Federal Reserve (the Fed) will
buy $600 billion in long-term US Treasury securities by
The specter of the Great Depression continues to loom in the the end of 2011 in order to collectively increase the banks’
haunting image of millions of Americans struggling to find excess reserves and increase the nation’s money supply.
work. Officials are hopeful of avoiding This controversial tactic can lower
a depression but are not optimistic interest rates and encourage spending
about unemployment. Dean Baker, co- “The real issue by making it less expensive to borrow
director of the Center for Economic and right now, when money, but it can also run long-term
Policy Research in Washington D.C., and inflation risks (see accompanying
former consultant to The World Bank, we are resource story, “Quantitative Easing”).
the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. constrained, is [to] Busch feels the program offers little
Congress, and the OECD’s [Organization
for Economic Co-operation and
create policies that reward with great risks. “I don’t think
it will greatly aid in lowering the
Development] Trade Union Advisory make companies feel unemployment rate; I don’t think it
Council, said, “I think it takes some really more confident will greatly aid in creating economic
misguided policies to get a depression, growth; and I think there is a risk that
although I don’t rule that out,” Baker said. about the future.” it will create inflation, not today, not
“The most likely scenario,” he - Nick Sargen necessarily tomorrow, but in about a
explained, “is just a long period year to 18 months from now,” he said.
of very weak growth and very high unemployment, “There is plenty of money in the system right now. Banks hold
and the baseline projections are exactly that.” already a trillion dollars worth of free reserves at the Federal
Reserve. That’s money they have that they ‘re not lending.”
Baker predicts that, through 2011, the unemployment rate
will cross the 10 percent mark, and it will take years before On the other hand, Baker believes that there is no
the unemployment number is restored to a normal level. risk of inflation, which occurs, according to Baker,
“when too much money is chasing too few goods and
Even with these dire circumstances, some feel there are services.” He doesn’t see that happening any time soon,
positive signs in the American economy. Andrew Busch, asserting that the economy can handle the excess cash.
global strategist for Bank of Montreal’s Capital Markets, Justin Hoogendoorn, Managing Director for the
believes that, while progress could move faster, strides Strategic Analytics Group for the Bank of Montreal, sees
are being taken to greatly ease the recovery process. another motive behind the Fed’s actions – a political tool
used to ease consumers’ worries (by strengthening our
“We’ve returned to growth, and my estimation is that we financial institutions, including the stock market). “It’s
will see continuing, accelerating growth,” Busch stated. really more of a symbolic thing; they want to show that
“We’re starting to see acceleration in job gains, and last they’re doing something else to support the market, try
month was +159,000 for non-farm payrolls, so clearly and keep confidence in the US market high,” he said.

10 THE SUIT DECEMBER 2010

 Another goal is to get credit going again. It is still hoped
that quantitative easing will have some effect there. The
new financial regulations, in Dodd-Frank [Wall Street
Reform and Consumer Protection Act] have created
some confusion in terms of new lending regulations.
Obama has continued Clinton’s efforts to facilitate small
All other logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.
business loans, but some banks claim to be holding back
on lending because of uncertainty over the new rules.
That issue points to the larger question regarding
the government’s role. “There is a much bigger
government sector today,” said Sargen, “on top of
budget deficits that are predicted to be at record levels.
“The real issue right now, when we are resource
constrained,” he added, “is [to] create policies that make
companies feel more confident about the future. Bigger
companies are making record profits,” he continued, “but
with an unstable economy, a future of uncertainty, and new
health care legislation,companies are holding double what
they usually hold in cash reserves, and refuse to hire.”
Justin Hoogendoorn agrees that regulation is problematic.
“Regulation is never a good incentive to increase your
hiring,” he said, “and I think that putting a new health
care structure in place makes it very difficult because,
when companies have increasing costs for health care, I
think there’s always going to be less incentive to hire.”
Baker feels that the Fed needs to be more aggressive in
pursuing inflation-raising policies, as quantitative easing is
intended to do. If companies expect inflation rates to rise,
they will have incentive to manufacture and produce in
the current economy when costs are cheaper. “If you can
convince the economic actors that you’re serious, it will affect
behavior,” Baker asserted. “If everyone thinks that inflation is
going to be 4 percent a year over the next three, four, five years
[and you can] sell for, let’s say, 10 percent more three years
out, it’ll give you much more of an incentive to invest today.”
Americans must adjust to what seems to be a long struggle
to climb out of this mess. The future remains unclear. There is
no sure sign of real growth. But the markets and the banking
institutions, as well as, for the time being, the auto industry,
have been stabilized. Yet, solutions to unemployment are not
on the table. In fact, recently, the extension of unemployment
benefits was held hostage, along with middle-class tax
cuts, for getting across-the-board Bush tax-cut extensions
for even the top two to three percent of the population,
who will probably not use that money to create jobs.
Hopefully, there will be solutions in the future which will
address our current structural weaknesses in the production
of goods and services which the rest of the world needs, and
which we are uniquely capable at providing, tapping into the
potential of American entrepreneurship, ala Silicon Valley.
2010 DECEMBER THE SUIT 11
sxc.hu®linder6580
 Maria Bartiromo
A Wall Street Tale
by Gary Stevens
and Michael Gordon
Reporting from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange,
Maria Bartiromo, anchor of CNBC’s “Closing Bell,” has
been witness to The Street’s hubris, its humility and its hope.
Whether interviewing the Prime Minister of Spain
or probing Stephen A. Schwarzman, Chairman and
co-founder of Blackstone, Bartiromo is, first and
foremost, a journalist. In her book, The 10 Laws of
Enduring Success, she wrote, “I love being in the
center of the news, interacting with people from
all walks of life, writing stories, reporting… I like
interviewing someone and figuring out what’s going
on inside their head.” And she enjoys the spotlight.
Wall Street is her stage. In an exclusive interview with
The Suit Magazine, she says, “I just think what happens on
Wall Street impacts many people. It’s not Wall Street and
Main Street. We are all connected.” Bartiromo delights
in de-mystifying the concepts of finance and money for
the residents of Main Street. She communicates through
television, hosting a show syndicated by over 200 stations.
12 THE SUIT DECEMBER 2010
A reporter once dubbed her “The Money Honey,” and
a website features “The Maria Bartiromo Hairdex,” a
tongue-in-cheek forecast of the markets based on her
cowlicks. “It may be surprising, but I’ve never found it
offensive. I don’t take myself that seriously,” she wrote. Her
knowledge, however, delves deeper than the day-to-day
movements of the stock market and the details of pulling
off a live show. “It’s the business world and the economy
– those are the subjects I love to think about,” she says.
Acknowledging a dilemma between her involvement
with Wall Street and its greed, she speaks to an issue
larger than executive bonuses. “Oh, sure, over the last
ten years, Wall Street was paying such high salaries, the
allure of compensation [attracted] people coming out
of MBA schools, and even law schools; and, over time,
the financial services industry didn’t only dominate the
S&P 500 in terms of stocks,” she says, “it dominated
new jobs, instead of jobs that would have stimulated our
economy, like healthcare, biotech and entrepreneurship.”
Bartiromo paints the picture of a financial industry
which had morphed into a colossal money-machine.
“It became too big; it became an allure for the wrong
reasons. You don’t want a career because you’re gonna
get rich; you go into a job because you love doing
it,” she states. “That’s my rule of success. I went into
journalism because I love it. Journalists don’t make
the outsize salaries. For a time, Wall Street became
so big and dominant, and a negative in many ways.”
Unchecked arrogance on Wall Street did lead to bloated
executive bonuses, but what should be done about
executive compensation in general? “It’s a legitimate
question, how we affect that change,” she begins, then
pauses before adding, “but I’m not a fan of officials
pointing fingers and blaming. The bad apples made the
headlines. I think that real class warfare was going on.”
She now shifts her tone in defense of the free market.
“Today, there is a little more balance. Companies are not
only focused on shareholders, but also [on] communities,
and I think it’s important to recognize those companies
that are doing good and are impacting communities and
families in a positive way,” she adds. “We learned a lot
from the financial crisis. There was a lot of embarrassment
going around, in terms of who made the biggest mistakes,
and, coming out of that, there is a lot more humility.”
 Looking at government’s role in the economy, starting
with the Federal Reserve, she says, “During the financial
crisis, the Fed did a stellar job and was the only one
that did all of the right things… I’m surprised the
Fed is the only one doing anything about this.” She
pauses again and continues. “[Quantitative easing]
is mind-boggling, but Bernanke seems very sure of
himself. I’m not sure. The worry is that it’s going to
cause inflation. There has been some negative reaction
by the market, but [the effect] remains to be seen.”
Bartiromo contends that presidential and legislative
efforts in response to the downturn have not been geared
towards growth. “I think that
the policies from the federal
government have not been
stimulative,” she adds. “You talk
about higher healthcare costs,
higher taxes, although that’s
going to change because they’re
extending the Bush tax cuts. But
if you want to create jobs, you
have to look at the source of job
creation, and that’s business,”
she asserts. “Government does
not create jobs, and so you
have to put into place policies
that encourage business.”
Washington’s policies and
its gridlock have often been
accused of squelching creativity “I just think what
happens on Wall
and innovation. Bartiromo
wryly says, “We have to unlock
our ingenuity. [Instead], we’re
denigrating business people Street impacts many
All other logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.
and calling them evil [while]
the rest of the world is laughing
at us. They are wondering how
people. It’s not Wall
they can be more like us; how
they can become the place Street and Main
Street. We are all
where people want to come
to, in order to send their kids
to school and get better health
care. You see Russia trying
to create a silicon valley of
connected.”
its own,” she adds, “and you
see the Chinese trying to create new manufacturing,
solar panels. Everybody is racing to become number
one, so the United States has to realize that to stay in
our position we have to compete on a lot of levels.”
Speaking about the economic rise of the East, her trust
and hope in American free enterprise resonates. “I’m not
concerned because, at the end of the day, America is a
great country, and we will always figure it out, but the
leadership is ours to lose.” Bartiromo rattles off figures,
“We’re talking about 1.1 billion in India, 1.3 billion in
China; we have 300 million people in America, so these
countries are out-sizing us. We have to [understand]
that just because we’re a superpower and a leadership
nation in the world, it doesn’t mean we’ll always be, so
we have to protect the things that are great about this
country, [like] free markets [and] entrepreneurship.”
There is one aspect of state-run capitalism which
can teach western free-market capitalism a lesson.
“China’s not thinking about the next two years and [not
thinking] ‘will our politicians get elected again?’” she
says. “They’re thinking about the next twenty years, the
next hundred years. They’re
long-term thinkers, and that’s
what we should be as well.”
In addition to her work on
Wall Street, Maria Bartiromo
has another passionate pursuit.
She was an adjunct professor
at NYU this past semester. “I
think that it’s important to teach
kids about money at a young
age,” she explains. “I think
there’s a reason we’ve had a
zero-percent savings rate and
debt in this country. It’s because
no one ever teaches you that
stuff; it’s important, especially
for women who need to take
control of their lives,” she adds.
“So I’m interested in education,
talking about money, doing
things on the side, but, basically,
I love what I’m doing in terms
of business journalism.”
Towards the end of the
interview, a hint of melancholy
tinges Bartiromo’s voice. She
began talking about her friend,
Joey Ramone, of the legendary
New York-based rock group
The Ramones, who died of
lymphoma in 2001. “Joey was
so sweet. You can be a superstar
and have so much success, but you can remember who
you are and where you came from, because everything is
so fragile, and maybe you have talent but also had a little
luck along the way, and you have to realize that,” she said.
Bartiromo recalled being invited to hear Joey play
a song he wrote about her, at CBGB’s, but she was too
busy. “It goes by so fast, you know; I just want people to
know that when they’re getting along with their careers,
it does rush by so quickly that they should appreciate
2010 DECEMBER THE SUIT 13
those things. A career can be so incredibly exciting,
but everything is so fragile. You have to cherish every
moment and be grateful,” she adds. “I think you also
have to be humble and keep your feet on the ground. Joey
Ramone was just a really good guy who did appreciate
all of that – down-to-earth – and I find that comforting.”
Such strong connections to people have influenced
Bartiromo’s work. When assessing the words of a person
she is interviewing, she doesn’t sound judgmental or
condescending. Perhaps, it’s from her upbringing and her
sense of gratitude. “I have a very close relationship with my
family, and those are the things you have to appreciate,”
she offers, “things that are special and mean a lot, and
you can’t take them for granted.” That compassion and
gratitude keeps Bartiromo centered. And it helps to keep
away negative thoughts. Her husband, Jonathan ‘Jono’
Steinberg, rhetorically asked her, “Do you know when I
knew I was going to marry you? It was the day you woke
14 THE SUIT DECEMBER 2010
up laughing. And I asked you, ‘Why are you laughing?’
You said, ‘I was dreaming about ice cream cones’.”
Maria Bartiromo is many things – a driven questioner,
analyst, and performer – a compassionate family member,
friend and teacher. She is a staunch defender of free-market
capitalism, while at the same time a kind proponent of
relationship and cooperation. Balance is an essential in
her life – so is trust. “I work a lot, but I have an inner
circle, and that inner circle matters a lot to me,” she states.
For Maria, the future looks bright. “I’m happy with
what I’m doing. In this industry, for the long-term, I like
following business trends and the economy, and so I
would like to continue doing this for as long as I can.” She
admires the strength and youthful vigor of the people
she has interviewed, many of them in their 80s and 90s.
They remain active and engaged in business. “That’s the
way I want to be – to live a very long life but die young.”
All other marks are the property of their respective owners.
sxc.hu®abumme
 Avature
The Top Recruiting CRM Solution
by Michael Gordon
In an exciting new business venture, Avature, the
top recruiting CRM solution provider, has announced
an extension of its relationship with the leading talent
matching engine, Monster.com. The new alliance looks
to provide Avature CRM with Real Time posting tools,
allowing customers of Avature to more effectively
manage information pertaining to job applicants and to
make job advertisements instantly available to the market.
As part of the extended relationship between the two
companies, Avature has also capitalized on Monster’s
advanced integration components. This will enable
companies to view available
inventory in real-time, but with the “Monster’s global
added benefit of not having to leave
their secure Avature CRM system. network is crucial to
Dimitri Boylan, Avature’s CEO, our customers’ sourcing
stated that “Monster’s global
network is crucial to our customers’
programs. Real Time
sourcing programs. Real Time job job postings insure that
postings insure that our clients can
easily create and optimize their our clients can easily
recruitment advertising campaigns
worldwide.”
create and optimize their
recruitment advertising
Before starting Avature in 2004,
Boylan enjoyed huge success with campaigns worldwide.”
another company of which he was
a founder – HotJobs.com. Built
primarily on strong customer support and high-tech web
innovation, HotJobs, became one of the most notable
success stories on the web. At the time of its sale to Yahoo!,
in 2002 (for $433 million in cash and stock),HotJobs was
the 49th most visited internet site in the world and had
raised $168 million in public and private capital.
Now with offices in the U.S., Latin America and Europe,
Avature provides Web 2.0 human capital management
solutions to connect clients with potential candidates
and enable them to run their recruiting operations as
effectively as possible. Avature was included in the “Cool
Vendors in Human Capital 2010” report by Gartner, Inc.
You might be wondering, then, how a company of such
pedigree can benefit from forging an alliance with another
company. Does it not have the talent and technology behind
it to prosper on its own? The answer is that Monster.com
also occupies an equally central role in online recruiting.
Monster.com and its parent company, Monster, share
the vision of encouraging people to view the necessity
for work as something that can enhance their lives. Since
starting out as a “job board” in 1999, Monster is now a
global provider of a huge range of services centering
on job searches. Having provided job-seekers with
advice, interview and resume tips,
and job advertisements, Monster.
com is now one of the 20 most
visited websites in the world.
In November 2010, Monster.com
used its prestige to enable users
of the site to ask the White House
questions about the future of the U.S.
job market. Customers submitted
their questions via the company’s
Facebook page, and, on November
14th, the top four were passed on to
the White House and responded to
via videotaped statements.
The way in which the current
economic downturn has hit the
job market has caused concern for both seekers and
employers. Monster enabled its customers to voice
their worries about the downturn with a positive
result, said Matt Henson, a spokesperson for the
company, adding, “What we’re seeing is that people
are moving beyond talking about the problem.
They’re looking to where we can find the solutions.”
It is with solutions in mind that Avature has
forged an alliance with Monster. People looking
for work in a tougher market than ever before can
now benefit from Avature’s technological wizardry
as well as Monster’s unrivaled global network.
2010 DECEMBER THE SUIT 15
 A
CLASH OF
CAPITALISMS
by Christopher Faille
Rudyard Kipling once wrote : East is East and West is West/ and
never the twain shall meet/ ‘til Earth and Sky stand presently/
before God’s great judgment seat/ but there is neither East nor
West/ nor border, nor breed, nor birth/ when two strong men
stand face to face/ though they come from the ends of the earth…
In many ways, that excerpt rings just as true today in the
market arena as it once did between cultures and armies,
though the metaphors have changed from the cultural-
military ones to one of economic approaches and styles. In
effect, western capitalism is caught in such an impasse, with
unbearable abuses of individual greed made possible by
the free-market paradigm, and many are looking for ways
to improve a flawed system. Eastern state-run capitalism
has a different character, along with its own problems.
Consider, for a moment, what we refer to as Asian
values, which reflects a more collectivist approach. Lee
Kuan-Few, a former senior minister in the Singaporean
government, boasted that such values made Singapore’s
capitalism distinctively different from the capitalism
of the West. There is no question about eastern, state-
run capitalism’s economic success. The prominence
of sovereign wealth funds, with headquarters in the
Far East, ought to cause some discomfort for those of
us quite comfortable with the individualistic, western
style of capitalism that the senior minister stigmatizes.
When we take a hard look at dollar figures, we can’t help
but note that there has been an increasing prominence
in the financial world of quasi-public investment
funds established by other nations with revenues that
exceed their operational needs. These are sovereign
wealth funds (SWFs). Although some of the largest
are associated with the petroleum-rich Persian Gulf
nations, many of the most impressive are in East Asia.
A country is not confined to one SWF. The People’s
Republic of China (PRC), for example, has its own
investment company, the State Administration of Foreign
Exchange (SAFE), with $347 billion in assets under
management (AUM), as well as its China Investment
16 THE SUIT DECEMBER 2010
Corp., with $332.4 billion, and the National Social
Security Fund, for domestic investment, with $146.5
billion. The combined figure, nearly $826 billion, makes
the PRC easily the world’s SWF champion. Unless you
include the US social security fund, which is currently
$2.5 trillion. Of course, the US is saddled by debt.
Despite the formal unification of Hong Kong and
the PRC in 1997, the two countries’ economies remain
distinct. Hong Kong’s Monetary Authority’s SWF holds
$259.3 billion AUM. This is far less than the PRC total
but greater than that of Kuwait or any other Persian Gulf
nation. Added to this overview is the venerable Temasek
Holdings of Singapore, with $133 billion AUM at present.
Within this construct, we should keep in mind the other
Asian giant, India, which only recently (2006) established
the India Infrastructure Finance Company Ltd (IIFC).
While the IIFC is small in comparison with the other funds
mentioned, it’s designed exclusively for domestic projects,
though mounting political pressure in India is now calling
for a more active role on the international financial scene.
In East Asia, much of the current dialogue concerns
the creation of new trading blocs. Japan, for example,
vowed to press for such a bloc, in a statement released
this past November 10. Projected as a free trade
agreement between East Asian nations (EAFTA), it
may also serve as the basis for the Japanese initiative
towards a Comprehensive Economic Partnership for East
Asia (CEPEA) that would also manifest as a working
bloc. Although free trade within the bloc would surely
be a part of the arrangement, coordinated central
planning would be the plus for establishing a CEPEA.
Many of the elites in the emerging East Asian nations
already have a shared ideology based on the principles
of thrift, hard work, a rejection of individualism, a love of
the extended family, and a respect for elders – all of which
are characteristics of East Asian cultures. Being guided by
such principles implies a form of capitalism without the
extreme features of individual hoarding and avarice but
 Rudyard Kipling once wrote : East
is East and West is West/ and
never the twain shall meet/ ‘til
Earth and Sky stand presently/
before God’s great judgment
seat/ but there is neither East
nor West/ nor border, nor breed,
nor birth/ when two strong men
stand face to face/ though they
come from the ends of the earth…
In many ways, that excerpt rings
just as true today in the market
arena as it once did between
cultures and armies, though
the metaphors have changed
from the cultural-military ones to
one of economic approaches and styles. In effect, western
capitalism is caught in such an impasse, with unbearable
abuses of individual greed made possible by the free-
market paradigm, and many are looking for ways to
improve a flawed system. Eastern state-run capitalism
has a different character, along with its own problems.
Consider, for a moment, what we refer to as Asian
values, which reflects a more collectivist approach. Lee
Kuan-Few, a former senior minister in the Singaporean
government, boasted that such values made Singapore’s
capitalism distinctively different from the capitalism
of the West. There is no question about eastern, state-
run capitalism’s economic success. The prominence
of sovereign wealth funds, with headquarters in the
Far East, ought to cause some discomfort for those of
us quite comfortable with the individualistic, western
style of capitalism that the senior minister stigmatizes.
All other logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.
When we take a hard look at dollar figures, we can’t help
but note that there has been an increasing prominence
in the financial world of quasi-public investment
funds established by other nations with revenues that
exceed their operational needs. These are sovereign
wealth funds (SWFs). Although some of the largest
are associated with the petroleum-rich Persian Gulf
nations, many of the most impressive are in East Asia.
A country is not confined to one SWF. The People’s
Republic of China (PRC), for example, has its own
investment company, the State Administration of Foreign
Exchange (SAFE), with $347 billion in assets under
management (AUM), as well as its China Investment
Corp., with $332.4 billion, and the National Social
Security Fund, for domestic investment, with $146.5
billion. The combined figure, nearly $826 billion, makes
the PRC easily the world’s SWF champion. Unless you
include the US social security fund, which is currently
$2.5 trillion. Of course, the US is saddled by debt.
Despite the formal unification of Hong Kong and
the PRC in 1997, the two countries’ economies remain
distinct. Hong Kong’s Monetary Authority’s SWF holds
$259.3 billion AUM. This is far less than the PRC total
but greater than that of Kuwait or any other Persian Gulf
nation. Added to this overview is the venerable Temasek
Holdings of Singapore, with $133 billion AUM at present.
Within this construct, we should keep in mind the other
Asian giant, India, which only recently (2006) established
the India Infrastructure Finance Company Ltd (IIFC).
While the IIFC is small in comparison with the other funds
mentioned, it’s designed exclusively for domestic projects,
though mounting political pressure in India is now calling
for a more active role on the international financial scene.
In East Asia, much of the current dialogue concerns
the creation of new trading blocs. Japan, for example,
vowed to press for such a bloc, in a statement released
this past November 10. Projected as a free trade
agreement between East Asian nations (EAFTA), it
may also serve as the basis for the Japanese initiative
towards a Comprehensive Economic Partnership for East
Asia (CEPEA) that would also manifest as a working
bloc. Although free trade within the bloc would surely
be a part of the arrangement, coordinated central
planning would be the plus for establishing a CEPEA.
Many of the elites in the emerging East Asian nations
already have a shared ideology based on the principles
of thrift, hard work, a rejection of individualism, a love
of the extended family, and a respect for elders – all of
which are characteristics of East Asian cultures. Being
guided by such principles implies a form of capitalism
without the extreme features of individual hoarding
and avarice but with a more collective pulse that
limits or represses individualist motifs(motivations).
2010 DECEMBER THE SUIT 17
Mexico’s Drug War
There’s a New Sheriff in Town
by Marina Tocon
It’s a sordid picture: heads of police chiefs found severed
and packed in ice – ruthless mayoral assassinations
– women and children caught in the crossfire.
Competing drug cartels in Mexico have long been
engaged in a battle for supremacy, and, for years, the
government posed little interference. But in 2006,
President Felipe Calderon took action, dedicating
thousands of troops to the war on drugs. Since then,
violent crime has increased as powerful cartels fight
to maintain their power. Now that competing drug
traffickers have a common enemy in the Mexican
government, it’s a dangerous time to be a public official.
Just ask the residents of Ciudad Juarez in Chihuahua.
Situated right on the US border near El Paso, Texas,
Ciudad Juarez is a thriving industrial center with
a rich history and a rapidly growing population
of 1.8 million people. It’s also one of the most
violent and dangerous municipalities on earth.
Also known as MurderCity, Ciudad Juarez was the
site of over 2,660 homicides in 2009. Citizens of the
beleaguered municipality know to stay indoors after
dark, lest they be caught in the crossfire between
rivaling drug traffickers and local law enforcement.
Women have not been exempted from the cartels’
reign of terror. According to official data compiled
by the National Citizens’ Watch on Femicide,
from January 2009 through June 2010 no less than
1,728 women were murdered in 18 Mexican states.
In the midst of this crisis and despite the violence targeting
women, there has been a remarkable development: a
20-year-old mother of one has stepped into the fray. College
student Marisol Valles decided to make a stand in her
hometown of Praxedis G. Guerrero, situated just 35 miles
south of Ciudad Juarez. Several months ago, she became
the town’s police chief – no one else would take the job.
A small town of 8,500 inhabitants, Praxedis is traversed
by only one highway. Unfortunately, that road is a
prime thoroughfare for drug trafficking between Mexico
and the US. The rivalingJuarez and Sinaloa cartels
are vying for control of the lucrative route, turning
this once-peaceful rural village into a combat zone.
Valles, whose only police experience was a stint as
department secretary, is now actively engaged in a struggle
that has claimed the lives of 11 Mexican mayors this year.
She is aware of the risk she’s taking; public officials like her
have increasingly become cartel targets since Calderon’s
anti-drug initiative. Media in Mexico and abroad
have praised her valor, but she is not immune to fear.
“Fear is very natural,” she said in an exclusive interview
with The Suit. “All of us are afraid. We’re human
beings. But I know we’re going to accomplish this.”
Her motivation speaks to the heart and soul of the Mexican
culture and every culture – a mother’s love for her children.
“I took the risk because I want my son to live in a different
community than the one we have today. I know that I must
do something to combat the problems we face. I took the
decision to take on this project, and its the right decision.”
Her innovative approach is an outgrowth of those
maternal instincts. “The weapons we will use are
principles and values, which are the best ones for
prevention,” she said. “We don’t plan to fight violence
with more violence.” That’s a pragmatic philosophy,
given that her entire Praxedis police department has
only 13 officers, one police car, three rifles and one pistol.
Valles’ strategy is to focus on the everyday problems
of the families in her jurisdiction. “We will hear the
problems of our community; we want families to
share with us their nightmares,” she said. “We can
show them a completely different path, far from drugs
and murders. What we are going to do is to share
experiences with the families and strengthen the family
values.” She also plans to increase the number of female
officers because “they help to build a sense of trust.”
In fact, Valles sincerely believes that the rise of violence in
2010 DECEMBER THE SUIT 19
Mexico results from a lack of values, not weak legislation.
“Criminals think they have no other alternative to
violence. Our mission [is to] try to rescue them through
sports, community duties, education, and so on. It will
give them the chance to change their paths,” she said.
Her mission is to prevent crime, not to punish it.
“I’m not going after the bad ones; that’s the federal
police and soldiers’ responsibility,” she said. “We’re
going after the good ones – children, parents, men and
women who we have to organize so they don’t fall prey
to the temptation of crime, drugs and easy money.”
Valles: “There has not
been a single violent
episode in Praxedis since
I have been here”
To date, this revolutionary method seems to be effective.
As Valles points out, “Our community is confident
about the project, and they support us. I am proud to
say that there has not been a single violent episode in
Praxedis since I have been here. We [have] achieved more
unity among citizens and a better community spirit.”
Despite her success, Police Chief Valles knows that other
leaders favor a more reactionary approach. Some, like
Calderon, seek stronger laws and harsher punishments for
traffickers and criminals. Others, such as former president
Vicente Fox, are tired of unsuccessful state efforts to combat
the crisis; he has suggested opening a public debate about
legalizing drugs. “Legalization does not mean that drugs
are good,” Fox recently wrote in a blog posting, “but
we have to see it as a strategy to weaken and break the
economic system that allows cartels to earn huge profits.”
Valles seems to support Fox’s ideas, recognizing that
“in case prevention doesn’t
work, maybe it would be good Marisol Valles (center) at a
to make drugs legal; but [that] press conference.
will be the responsibility of other
[institutions], not ours.” She
recognizes that with her limited
resources, policy changes and
crackdowns are not viable options.
Prevention is a more practical goal,
and she pursues it wholeheartedly.
But Valles is realistic about the
problems she faces – prevention at
the grassroots level is important,
but it’s not enough, given how
cartels influence Mexican society
beyond the mere use of violence.
Corruption is pervasive, affecting
local law enforcement, lawyers,
20 THE SUIT DECEMBER 2010
high-ranking police officials and prosecutors, many
of whom have been accused of collaborating with
traffickers. “Any change needs a reshap[ing] from
the very top,” says Valles. “Even the people in high
[positions] must change for [things] to be different.”
With three years left in her current post, Valles has
effectively demonstrated the effectiveness of her
approach. While traditional police weapons have
not yet proven successful, her fundamental method
of providing support to the citizens of Praxedis
has established a bulwark against the infectious
lures of illegal activity, the temptations of fast
money and escape from the miseries of poverty.
Implicit in Valles’ methodology is a message of hope
for the people of her village. “If they follow their
ideals, they will be able to reach whatever they want,”
she said. This optimism is catching on; recently, two
other young women have decided to become police
chiefs in their respective municipalities. In a part of the
Mexican culture poisoned by misdirected machismo,
this new perspective, based upon bringing people
together and encouraging their efforts, is one that
speaks to human dignity and strengthens a person’s
fortitude. It is an age-old story – people coming
together to alter the fabric of their community, making
it infertile ground for crime, violence and tyranny.
The lightning rod for this amazing accomplishment in
a small town on the outskirts of the most violent city
in Mexico is Marisol Valles. In her capacity as Chief
of Police, she is providing social support in an area
where state-supported social services did not exist
and is introducing innovative alternatives to standard
forms. She’s an extraordinary woman whose sense
of vision is the beginning of a new path for Mexico
in its struggle against the evils of the drug trade.
 Cartel’s Tentacles
Reach Colorado
Town
Pike’s Peak, as seen through the Kissing
Camel Red Rocks near Colorado Springs.
Until recently, the operations of the Mexican drug cartels
had not been spilling over into the States. However,
pushed on by the need to find less conspicuous bases
from which to do business, drug smugglers have been
traveling over the border. Colorado Springs is one city
they have chosen. Nestling at the foot of Pikes Peak,
650 miles north of the Mexican border and the blood-
stained city of Juarez, this bustling, largely conservative
city has felt the cartels’ presence in recent months.
Matthew Barden, Resident Agent-in-Charge of the US
Drug Enforcement Administration Office in Colorado
All other marks are the property of their respective owners.
Springs, maintains that the ease with which cartel members
can reach Colorado Springs has made the city a prime
location for their activities. “Interstate 25,” he says, “runs
straight down to the Mexican border. Between the border
and Colorado Springs, there’s only one other town of any
real size – and that would be Albuquerque, New Mexico.
“The interstate system that we have here,” he
continues, “brings these folks to our town because
they have direct access to Mexico along this highway.”
The Colorado branch of the DEA has been involved
in “Project Deliverance,”a 22-month multi-agency
law enforcement investigation publicly announced
last June. In Colorado, a total of 29 individuals have
been arrested on narcotic-related charges, and over
$1.4 million in currency and assets have been seized.
This is in addition to over thirteen pounds of cocaine,
by Mark Nayler Staff Writer
thirty pounds of methamphetamine and 3.75 pounds
of heroin. Across the states, the investigation has
resulted in 2,278 arrests and the seizure of $154 million
dollars, as well as a staggering 2.5 tons of cocaine,
69 tons of marijuana, 501 weapons, and 527 vehicles.
The statistics suggest that there has been considerable
cartel activity in Colorado Springs at least over the
past 2 years. But Matthew Barden is emphatic that
the population has not and will not see the kind
of violence that is tearing apart cities like Juarez.
“I don’t think that Colorado Springs, in itself, is a
drug haven. There’s just not enough open sales of large
quantities of drugs on the street corners. Yes, there are
drugs,” he readily admits, “but as far as Colorado Springs
being a tremendous hub, I don’t find it to be any different
from any place else. We just don’t have the violence.”
Despite the difficulties presented by sophisticated
cartels, Barden thinks the fight in Colorado and across
the US is being won by the law enforcement agencies
involved. “When you can claim over 2,200 arrests out of
an operation, and when you’ve seized several hundred
million dollars, [what you have is] a successful operation.”
But Mike Turner, a Special Agent with the DEA, thinks
it is misleading to talk of winning the fight outright, not
only in Colorado Springs,but, as well, down in Mexico and
across the States too. “Drug trafficking is criminal activity
just like burglary and robbery. We’re still trying to put [the
Mexican cartels] out of business, but just as you’re not
going to put burglars, murderers and bank robbers out
of business tomorrow, it won’t happen overnight. I think
that folks should look at it that way rather than, basically
asking, ‘When are you going to win the drug war?’”
However, the combination of Colorado Springs’ distance
and ease of access from the Mexico border means that the
authorities there are prepared to face the challenges posed
by the cartels. From Barden’s standpoint, “We are going to
root out these organizations… We’re going to take all their
drugs and their money, and we’re going to break them.”
2010 DECEMBER THE SUIT 21
 Justice In A Law
Wikileaks, “Hacktivism” and the U.S. Constitution
by James Partridge
No soldier in the information wars that now rage
online enjoys more fame – or more infamy – than Julian
Assange, the leader of Wikileaks. In late November, when
his web site released its initial installment for an ongoing
series of over a quarter million secrets that leaked State
Department documents, Assange quickly earned the
contempt of powerful figures and a spot in the gunsights
of U.S. Justice Department investigators. Assange could
ultimately face extradition to the United States to be
tried for violating laws relating to national security.
U.K. authorities arrested Assange on December 5th,
and he remains on house arrest near London awaiting
potential extradition to Sweden on sex charges that
his lawyer claims are a pretext for holding him in
anticipation of a request by the United States that he
be extradited to face charges for his role in the leaks.
Swedish prosecutors filed an Interpol warrant for
Assange’s arrest almost immediately after Wikileaks
began releasing the confidential diplomatic cables,
and one day after U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder
announced an investigation of Assange. “This is not
saber-rattling,” cautioned Holder. Wikileaks staff could
face prosecution if its relationship with Army soldier
Bradley Manning strayed beyond the role of merely
passively receiving the documents from him. Private First
Class Manning, the alleged leaker, awaits trial this spring.
Prominent officials have come out in support of
the state, placing pressure on Assange. Obama
administration spokesman Robert Gibbs emphasized
that the dissemination of secret information by
Wikileaks poses a “serious threat to individuals
that both carry out and assist in our foreign policy.”
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said, “he is engaged
in terrorism, and should be treated as an enemy combatant.”
Public political speech, including even speech that is
highly critical of Wikileaks, is supposed to be immune
to suppression by the law and should be respected. “At
the end of the day it is [a] First Amendment right to be
very critical” of Assange, explained John B. Morris Jr.,
who served as lead counsel in a 1996 case that saw the
Supreme Court unanimously strike down parts of a
22 THE SUIT DECEMBER 2010
federal law censoring Internet websites, the first major
Supreme Court victory for Internet free speech advocates.
“On the other hand,” he said, “if you have members
of the executive branch who hypothetically are urging
the suppression of Wikileaks content, that raises a
lot more significant First Amendment concerns.”
A tireless advocate of free speech, Morris does not
“question their commitment to this country,” he said.
“But I do think that some officials have lost sight of the
important values on which this country was founded.”
Building pressure by U.S. policy makers upon private
business has apparently had a more direct effect on
Wikileaks. Independent Connecticut Senator Joseph
Lierberman has encouraged private companies to
terminate their relationships with Wikileaks, resulting
in the disappearance of the web site’s dot-org domain
name and making it difficult for Americans to donate
to the web site or to support Assange’s defense.
Those companies, including Amazon, Mastercard,
and PayPal, faced angry reprisal attacks that saturated
their Internet websites with repeated requests from
individual “hacktivists,” some operating collectively
under “anonymous,” an altogether suitable pseudonym.
The total number of attackers was in the hundreds,
according to computer science specialist Craig Labovitz.
The private companies concerned likely did not break
any rules when they agreed to remove Wikileaks from
their systems, argued Morris. “For a website to not want
to have certain kinds of content – that’s fine,” he said.
“It gets more problematic when an online infrastructure
provider makes it hard for a site to be online at all.”
Though the U.S. government cannot inhibit most
speech, “we do think that companies should very
strongly weigh free speech considerations when they’re
looking at controversial speech that might be on their
system,” continued Morris. “We hope that companies
will consider the free speech implications of that.”
The leaked documents remain accessible via thousands
of mirror sites originating throughout the world.
 less Cyber-Space
Though Supreme Court precedent protects media
organizations that publish documents after passively
receiving them from unaffiliated sources, the leaker
himself often meets a different fate. PFC Manning,
the intelligence analyst formerly stationed in Iraq and
charged with downloading secret data from a government
network onto his personal computer before transmitting
it to Wikileaks, was arrested in May and awaits his day
in a military court on charges of leaking the secret files.
The First Amendment Case for Wikileaks
Unless Wikileaks conspired with the alleged leaker,
calls for Assange to be punished under U.S. law may
ultimately go unmet. “I think that the Supreme Court
is likely to continue to protect free expression when
there is not a clear, direct security threat,” said Morris.
“If somebody leaks diplomatic cables that embarrass
the United States in some way, I think [the leaker] is
still certainly going to be protected to publish them.”
Supreme Court justices – conservative and liberal alike
– tend to agree that the First Amendment prohibits
any government injunction against the publication
of leaked documents. To that effect, the high court
declared in 1971 that “the dominant purpose of the First
Amendment was to prohibit the widespread practice of
governmental suppression of embarrassing information.”
An entire generation remembers that case, styled New
York Times v. United States, in which intelligence analyst
All other logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.
Daniel Ellsberg photocopied and disclosed to the media over
four thousand pages of confidential military documents
that showed how government threat assessments in
Vietnam were grossly exaggerated. The President was
forced to endure the embarrassing revelation that
government threat assessments in Vietnam had been
grossly exaggerated in order to amp up the case for war.
Following the case’s resolution, The Times published
the papers, and, in response, the Vietnam War was
arguably foreshortened, having lost public support.
As with The Times case in 1971, the official reaction
to Wikileaks has been strongly critical. “Some people
in government are reacting to an embarrassing
situation that I’m sure has created some challenging
times in terms of U.S. diplomacy,” said Morris.
“But they need to keep in mind that robust political
speech is what this country was founded on,”
Espionage charges against Ellsberg, who leaked what
came to be known as the Pentagon Papers, were dismissed
when the district court judge observed improper – almost
bizarre – behavior by the Justice Department in its
prosecution of the case. Whether Ellsberg would have been
found guilty is a question left unanswered by history, but
he kept his freedom and is revered today as a national hero.
Before late November 2010, Internet website Torrent-
finder.com featured an index of other websites where
users can download pirated movies. Now, after winning
the approval of the courts and Congress, agents at the
Department of Homeland Security’s Intellectual Property
Rights unit have seized that domain, along with many others
accused of facilitating the theft of intellectual property.
Legislation in Congress related to prior restraint of
websites
“Government action to seize websites is a fairly classic
example of prior restraint,” explained Morris, referring
to the practice of suppressing a document in advance of
its publication – including by court order – which the
Supreme Court views skeptically.
Thus, it seems likely that the executive branch’s censorship
of web sites in November was something of a fluke and
that the Internet will not be made into Swiss cheese by
an executive branch agency unilaterally choosing which
sites to allow – and which to censor. That is, at least,
not if the Supreme Court has anything to say about it.
“It’s much more appropriate if somebody is
committing a copyright violation to try to bring that
individual to justice either civilly or criminally,”
saidMorris. “So we have a lot of concerns about the
approach of trying to suppress websites. In some contexts,
they may very well violate the First Amendment.”
The First Amendment was enacted by people who
likely could not begin to fathom the sheer quantity of
information that would eventually be transmitted across
present-day forms of media. Nevertheless, believes
Morris, the right to freedom of expression should be
interpreted as restricting government
censorship on the Internet. “I
think we can retain
those principles.”
2010 DECEMBER THE SUIT 23
 Health Care Law
Mucks its Way through Political Quagmire
by Gary Stevens
and James Partridge
Late at night on March 21, 2010, the U.S. House of
Representatives was buzzing with activity. As the clock
ticked towards 10:48 P.M., many of the lawmakers
raised their voices rose in unison to count down from
ten as if it were New Years Eve. But this was an historic
event far more sginificant than the yearly ball-drop
in Times Sqaure-- this was the voting deadline for the
sweeping Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
(PPACA), which passed by a narrow margin of 219-212.
But this was only a qualified victory. As John E.
McDonough, Ph.D, a leading architect of the new health
care reform law, admitted, “[the PPACA] does not do
enough to fix health care, for access, for cost, and for
quality. Much more could have been done,” he said in
an interview with The Suit Magazine. But, as a seasoned
health policy expert and CUNY’s Distinguished Fellow in
Public Health, Dr. McDonough recognizes that the PPACA
“was probably close to the best law that could have gotten
through Congress in the period of time that Congress was
considering it.” The political climate has since changed.
After the 2008 election, Democrats enjoyed a super-
majority in the Senate, and a sweeping reform bill was
in the works—but the window of opportunity slammed
shut in 2009. The blow struck at an idyllic seaside
compound in Hyannis Port, Mass., when a fatal brain
tumor laid to rest one of health care reform’s ardent
champions, Ted Kennedy. The special election for
Kennedy’s replacement as Mass. Senator resulted in a
win for Republican Scott Brown, ending the democratic
super-majority in the Senate. Anticipating a November
slaughter, democrats then felt compelled to take
advantage of their short opportunity to pass the PPACA.
As McDonough explains, Democrats were smart to pass
the bill while they still could. “You couldn’t do it again if
your life depended on it,” he told The Suit. “The values
of the people in Congress [today] sharply differ from the
people that were running the House and the Senate back
in 2009 [and early] 2010.” He paused and then continued,
“It comes down to the question of, ‘Do you think that the
United States has the best health care system in the world—
24 THE SUIT DECEMBER 2010
and that the only issue is making sure that we keep it as is—
or do you believe that the US healthcare system is in dire
need of some serious repair?’ Republicans tend to believe
very much the former, and Democrats very much believe
the latter.” He cites a precedent in Republican opposition
to the creation of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965.
Of course Republicans cite the extensive costs, as
well as the role of government in the whole health care
process. The projected price of the reform is still being
hotly disputed. The Congressional Budget Office—a
non-partisan third-party cost estimation organization—
originally projected a cost of $950 billion, which would
be offset by a $138 billion reduction in the federal deficit.
But those figures did not include additional discretionary
spending, and so California House Representative
Jerry Lewis asked for a revised estimate before the
bill passed before Congress. The CBO responded on
May 11 with a projected additional cost of $115 billion
in discretionary spending over 10 years, bringing the
total cost of the reform to over $1 trillion—and some
experts think that even this is a conservative estimate.
Proponents have noted the need for reform because of
the estimated 50 million sick and impoverished Americans
currently lacking health insurance. The PPACA is
expected to facilitate access to coverage for 31 million.
And even though the U.S. currently has the highest per-
capita health care expenditures in the developed world,
we are below average in several measures, including life
expectancy and infant mortality. McDonough attributes
Republican opposition to health care reform to core
ideas: “Conservatives value expanding coverage less
than keeping taxes as low as possible and protecting
individual freedoms against government mandates.”
And that means the fight over health care reform is
not over. Republicans and their affiliates are vigorously
challenging the new act in the media, in federal and state
legislatures, and in the courts. McDonough feels it is likely
that the newly elected House Republican majority, “will
seek to put sand in the gears of the reforms, by choking
off funding for the federal agencies charged with setting
 up and enforcing the new law’s provisions.”
If new programs set up under the
PPACA are not adequately funded, then
the remaining provisions likely would
not function as intended, handicapping
the reform as a whole. For example, the
government-regulated private health
insurance exchanges—where employers
and individuals will be able to collectively
negotiate with insurance companies for better
rates and coverage—require federal funding
to cover setup costs. And non-funding would
be a double whammy, because the exchanges
are also the venue where citizens will be able
to apply for financial subsidies to help with
their private premiums and co-payments.
If the high price tag motivates enough
opposition, the administrative efforts required
to put the bill into effect may have to be
curtailed, and the goal of enrolling 31 million
in health care will be in jeopardy. That would
ultimately put a strain on insurance firms,
making it difficult for them to comply with the
new ban on discriminating against applicants
on the basis of pre-existing conditions.
Before the act, insurance companies
controlled their risk portfolios by refusing to
cover certain kinds of care and by rejecting
applicants with pre-existing conditions. The
reform will ban these practices in 2014, and
in the meantime create a temporary program
to help sick citizens enroll in state-run
high-risk insurance pools. To balance that
increased expenditure, PPACA mandates that
31 million Americans, including young and
healthy people, get coverage. That will add a
population to the insurance companies’ risk-
All other marks are the property of their respective owners.
pool which does not utilize a great deal of health
resources, and will lower the overall average
cost-per-customer to the insurance company.
However, this individual mandate
provision is the most contentious piece of
the new bill. PPACA opponents argue that
the mandate exceeds the Constitution’s
limits on congressional authority; claiming
the government has no right to force
people to buy a product. They have filed
over 20 lawsuits in the federal courts
challenging the law’s constitutionality.
On December 13, U.S. District Court Judge
Henry E. Hudson of Va. decided against
the mandate in the first federal ruling of its
kind. The lawsuit, brought by Va. Governor
Ken Cuccinelli, argued that the mandate
violates a constitutional clause limiting the
government’s power to regulate commerce.
The argument for a federal mandate’s
constitutionality defines a purchase of
insurance as a commercial activity, subject
to federal interstate commerce laws. A brief
filed by top economists argued that the choice
to refrain from buying health insurance
is indeed an activity: it is a decision as to
how one’s health care will be provided for,
since the use of health services is almost
inevitable at some point in a person’s life.
Those who elect to remain uninsured,
theoretically, affect the interstate health care
market by shifting the costs for their care
upon others and by lowering the demand
for private insurance, depriving insurance
firms of an important source of revenue.
Two other federal judges disagreed
with Hudson—one from Hudson’s state
of Va. and the other from Mich.— and
said, “far from ‘inactivity,’ by choosing to
forgo insurance, plaintiffs are making an
economic decision to try to pay for health
care services later, out of pocket, rather than
now, through the purchase of insurance.”
Hudson’s decision was a victory in
spirit for Republicans nationwide, but
in terms of the political reality the ruling
will have little impact. Since the judge did
not grant an injunction in this case, the
reform is still en route to implementation
as is. An appeal is expected, and the issue
may go all the way to the Supreme Court.
Whether Hudson’s decision results in major
changes or not, a line in the sand has been
drawn; the fight over the controversial
mandate provision has only just begun.
So, we have a momentous bill, the first to
seriously address the problems posed by
private provision of health care, along with
payment by private insurance companies.
Yet it is a bill which is seriously flawed and
may be more an insurance reform than true
health care reform. But it has economic
consequences, so we’re even fighting over the
compromise. It all begs the question: How is
it that the richest nation on earth has placed
itself in a position in which the government
has to force its own citizens to purchase health
coverage? Strange. And uniquely American.
2010 DECEMBER THE SUIT 25
 by Patty Hastings
World Impact Network (WIN), a Christian humanitarian
organization that has provided aid to 300,000 people
globally since 1996, began with a conversation in a coffee
shop. A group of friends shared a cup of coffee and a
hope for leadership development in emerging nations.
“We were sitting around a table at a Starbucks
one afternoon and really that’s where the vision of
World Impact Network was birthed and formulated
– on a Starbucks napkin,” said founder and executive
director Gabriella Van Breda who was drawn toward
helping others and volunteering at an early age.
The 501(3) non-profit strengthens communities
both locally in Washington state’s King County
and internationally in countries such as Uganda,
Kenya, Botswana, Zambia, the Congo, Sri Lanka,
China, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Nepal
and Mexico. The range of where they help and what
they offer can be attributed to Van Breda’s approach.
“We look for what is needed in the community and
then we come up with creative ideas of how we can
help people, resource people, add value to people.
That’s what we’re about as a nonprofit,” she said.
Their largest local program, the Renewal
Food Bank centered in Bellevue, Washington
feeds about 175 to 220 families each week.
“I would love to say that the numbers at the food
bank have shrunk substantially because of our work.
Unfortunately, due to the latest economic crisis, our
numbers have risen exponentially,” Van Breda said.
Operating since May of 1998, the Renewal Food
Bank, as part of the Northwest Harvest Hunger Relief
Network and partner agency of Food Lifeline, helps
put food on people’s plates. Since opening their doors
they’ve seen their impact on the community swell.
“As you know, when you have a food bank people
come and go, but in this current economic crisis over
the last year this has been just an enormous contribution
that we have made to the community,” said Van Breda.
Immigrant refuges as well as undocumented
people find safe harbor in Seattle and seek aid
from the Renewal Food Bank. With today’s tough
economy, WIN doesn’t just assist these groups.
“It is helping not only refuges now, but also our
26 THE SUIT DECEMBER 2010
very own American population group, that is,
professionals. A lot of professionals are finding
themselves without employment and just need
to be helped through this time,” said Van Breda.
WIN’s primary focus, though, lies in helping others
help themselves through education and skill building.
“Last year we ran reinvention forums for about a hundred
professionals that had lost their jobs. Ninety eight percent
have been reemployed since then,” Van Breda said.
WIN offers training and development oversees and
looks to build relationships with credited US universities
to provide leadership training for individuals who don’t
have the opportunities to gain skills in their own countries.
“In Uganda we trained over 200 women in
income generating skills training. At least 50%
of those women are now running their own
businesses employing other people. So, of course,
we are no longer needed there,” said Van Breda.
Reliant on individual contributions and grants,
WIN faces their own funding challenges. Van
Breda’s background in business and intercultural
communications helps her continue to run a non-profit.
“We need to be continually rethinking our business
models. We need to be progressive. We need to be
trailblazers rather than just sheepish followers,” she said.
Rather than look at the economic situation and only see
barriers to the services WIN works to provide, Van Breda
sees a chance to proactively learn and grow as a business.
“I believe that crisis births opportunity,” she said.
Through free teaching programs, WIN teaches
others to be self-sufficient and emphasizes the
importance of teamwork. In the process, WIN develops
and strengthens their identity as an organization.
“We cannot do anything on our own. We
can only succeed if we establish partnerships
and do this cooperatively,” said Van Breda.
Budget cuts require innovative ways to approach
problems and meet needs. Awareness of what’s
going on and openness on what should be done
to better the world, offers a catalyst for success.
“The most important thing I learned from a
professor at university is ‘be a lifelong learner,’” Van
Breda said. “When we think we know everything
is when we fail. But when we realize we can learn
something from just about anyone, then I think we
can succeed because that means we’re listeners.”
Gabriella Van Breda’s training as a minister,
educational background and compassion for others
allows her to feel well equipped for the future.
In response to the turbulent global economy she
said, “If we look hard enough we can really see what
is happening, what is panning out in the future,
and then, we can adjust what we’re doing to be sure
that we can stay in the forefront of our industry.”
Trained as minister went to university in California for dual
masters program, MBA, intercultural communications
Their Youth Mentorship program, Youth With a Purpose,
targets the youth of low-income, immigrant and single
parent families. Build self-confidence and a sense of
purpose through fun service projects and summer camps.
Work with other nonprofits like Habitat for Humanity.
Talk Time conversational English program.
“We walked away from that meeting and it was just
two years after that that we actually implemented the
vision and the 501(3) was established,” Van Breda said.
“I was always drawn towards helping others. At a very
early age I actually started volunteering,” said Van Breda.
“I was working in humanitarian work in South Africa
before we relocated to the United States of America
and started World Impact Network,” said Van Breda.
A team of people brainstormed effective ways to achieve
WIN’s goals. WIN’s primary focus is education. Lived
in Canada for two years Team effort, brainstorming
effective ways achieve goals Life programs:
Primarily educational institution, Teaching free,
Business professionals help teach marketing. “I have
never found any barriers because of my gender.”
Background in business to effectively run nonprofit
Professors mentors university professors who
practiced what they taught Leadership training and
development success challenge, doing in China It’s no
coincidence that WIN started in Starbucks, a company
that started with one store in Seattle Pike Place Market.
2010 DECEMBER THE SUIT 27
 Anacostia Economic Development Corporation
“Empowering Communities Since 1969”

Albert “Butch” Hopkins: The Ralph Nader of Community Services

by Jean Paul

Attorney Albert “Butch” Hopkins, CEO and President, “The hardest thing you have to work with is the
of Anacostia Economic Development Corporation, changing nature of government. It’s just amazing.”
models himself after activist-lawyer Ralph Nader,
the 1960s consumer advocate and who took on AEDC has made some positive changes in the D.C. area.
government agencies, and ultimately served as an In the 1990s, Hopkin said, “We built a grocery store
American hero to working class Americans. “He was to show that we support retailers. And that retailers
always doing his ‘Nay list’ (a term Nader created) to could do well in underserved neighborhoods.” The
watch over government corporation has placed key importance on housing
agencies or government development, commercial
administrations to revitalization, including
make sure they were small-minority-business-
doing the right thing,” assistance, job creation
Hopkins told The Suit and venture development. 
Magazine in September. Throughout the years,
the agency has urbanized
For the past 35 years, the single and multi-family
AEDC has been on the housing, neighborhood
frontlines of economic retail and office projects
development, working and a shopping center to
for those underserved serve residents who live
in Washington D.C. “I East of the Anacostia River
saw a need to amend the in Washington DC.  “We
articles of incorporation do housing and real estate
and create a community development. In 2008,
d e v e l o p m e n t we built a three story
corporation that office building,” Hopkins
could do acquisitions said. “We also engaged
and development of real property. To in projects with software companies that hire in our
really plan for the transformation of an community. We recently worked with a company in
underserved and depressed neighborhoods,” getting them to expand into the District of Columbia.
he added: “So that’s basically how I got into it.” They have the ability of creating 300 to 500 jobs.”

So far, the agency has built retail facilities, office
buildings, residential properties, first time home buyers,
and generally improved quality of life for the Anacostia
Southeast D.C. community. He’s also encouraged small
businesses to move into the nation’s capital. “Through
the community service organization they had a venture
capital fund and we were able to initiate projects,”
he said. “We had an advantage to purchase stock at
$10 a share and that share grew to $300 per share.”
Hopkins networks with city government agencies,
often times, building long-term relationships with
countless directors in various departments. “You
have good relationships with one department over
a four year period,” he explained in a clip tone.
“The next thing you know they got a new director
and you have to start all over again,” he added:
He has reached out to the highest levels of government.
“We are also working the development to bring the
largest federal building---Homeland Security which will
be located at the east campus of St. Elizabeth,” he said.
  As president and CEO of a major agency, Hopkins
has learned to overcome many obstacles over time.
“You must know what you don’t know and you have
to hire what you need and what you don’t have,” he
said. “And pay what is necessary to acquire the best,”
adding, “Do what you say and deliver it, you have to
say what you mean. My favorite is do unto other as
you would have them do unto you.” Hopkins offers
some sage advice to young entrepreneurs entering the
corporate world: “Patience. It is a necessary trait that
you must have because many things are changing in
the corporate world, and you have to stay the course.”

28 THE SUIT DECEMBER 2010

 A Trust Betrayed
Barbara Suzanne Farley J.D.
Armed with a law degree and a
sense of indignation, Sue Farley
is ready for battle. As the CEO of
Fiduciary Technologies Inc., she’s
taking on one of the oldest and least
understood bastions of institutional
corruption the trust industry.
Currently in the throes of a
$50,000,000 lawsuit involving a
trust that has been whittled down
from $50,000,000 to $1,000,000
for the trust’s beneficiaries through
various fees, machinations of the
lawyers and court costs. Farley told
us something almost impossible to
fathom. “The lawyers and financial
institution who formulated the
estate plan, inserted themselves
in as trustees and systematically
looted the trust over 10 years leaving
nothing for the beneficiaries.“ It’s
like [Charles Dickens’] ‘Bleak House’
on steroids.” But in addition to
taking on the establishment in the
courts, Farley has come up with
a fundamental solution to this
endemic problem; she has designed
a system to end the corruption
that robs from beneficiaries
when our loved ones pass away.
Putting her legal mind to work in
collaboration with IT professionals,
Farley has created architecture for
software and a larger technology
framework that allows ordinary
people to plan out their estate
and trusts, put them into a legal
framework and link them to an
administrative program. “It is a
way to give control back to people
who have wealth to pass on,” she
says. That passion to protect the
vulnerable against the powerful
has animated Farley’s career.
In the 1980’s, as a young lawyer in
San Francisco, Farley represented the
prominent Gump family in a lawsuit
against Wells Fargo Bank. “The
bank was holding back money that
b y Gary Stevens
should have been distributed, and
not collecting rents on properties
the estate owned. I was going up
against a huge financial institution
ultimately represented by two law
firms—with over 300 lawyers each
—and I said, ‘let’s settle, it’s only
$50,000 to $100,000 at stake. But
the bank resisted paying anything
responding that they would
recover all of their attorneys fees
from my client for the litigation.
But Sue Farley won the case and
asked for $1,000,000 in punitive
damages and got it. This caught
the attention of major newspapers.
The Wall Street Journal , the LA
Times and San Francisco Chronicle
published the story, and soon her
phone was ringing off the hook.
Farley says the current system
gives too much power to trustees,
and has too little oversight. She
wondered, “Why hasn’t technology
been introduced into this system
to make it more accountable?
Why doesn’t anyone touch this
industry?” Protecting our assets
from legalized theft and reducing
the destructive effect on families
were the motivations for Farley
to form Fiduciary Technologies.
We developed an ontology, a language
of trusts, and an architecture
that overlays trust law with the
provisions of your trust, your [true]
goals and intentions. It then links
to an administrative program, that
implements your plan and [finally]
your trust is executed in accordance
with your directives. “It gives you
control, by setting parameters
around decision making. “In our
system, administrative tasks and
expenses are cut to 1/3 of what they
are today and “ The fox can be in the
hen house but he will only be able to
eat one chicken before he is caught.”
In 1990, Farley stopped practicing
law in order to concentrate on
shifting the paradigm. “My dream
is to change the industry so that our
children are first [to benefit],” she
said. “Now, lawyers, accountants
and bankers take their money
first from our estates and trusts.”
Ultimately, her goal is to bring her
service and technology to the general
public. She has met with both
acceptance and reticence within the
banking community. “Lower level
people say that it’s a great idea,” and
want the system, but the principals
have told her that “the banks make
money the way it is.” Farley said. “
So many professionals make money
from the system, the consumer
is the loser. Farley devoted all of
her time to the project, at her own
cost. But she needs funding to keep
it going. She has written a book
“Trust are you kidding?” about
the pitfalls of the trust industry
(a #1 best seller on Amazon. She
is back practicing law in order to
earn a living while she pursues her
larger dream. (bsuzanne7@aol.com)
Farley ‘s energy and determination
is the result of watching what her
mother went through after divorcing
her father. As her mother worked
to sustain the family, her father
was ordered to pay child support.
Instead, he disappeared and hid
his assets. Sue’s mother pursued
recovery for her children which
took 12 years of litigation and a
US Supreme Court challenge. Like
Sue, her mother refused to give up.
Watching that drama unfold
inspired Sue,. “I saw the
powerlessness of my mother [for all
those years], and I swore it would
never happen to me.” And now that
she’s armed with information that
could help us all to avoid a similar
catastrophe, she’s working hard to
get funding and to get the word out.
2010 DECEMBER THE SUIT 29
 An Innovative Approach to Consulting
by Daniel Horowitz
Brain Rabinovitz knows how
to seize an opportunity when
he finds one. With over twenty
years of practice behind him
in accounting, auditing and
accounting consulting, he
recently founded his own
company—Proactive Professional
Solutions, Inc., in Los Angeles—
and he’s using his wide breadth
of experience to bring success to
his independent venture.
Proactive Professional Solutions is a young company,
founded earlier this year. Rabinovitz works with
a diverse range of companies, providing various
consulting services in areas like business management,
mergers and acquisitions, and obtaining financial
capital through traditional and non-traditional means.
He also performs business development services for
Marcum Stonefield, a national accounting firm with
over 1000 employees. He started the company because
he’s passionate about helping innovative businesses
succeed. “My client base ranges from middle market
companies to entrepreneurs with a good idea,” he
told The Suit. “Proactive Professional Solutions and
our extended team include top professional service
providers and firms, successful entrepreneurs,
insightful, accomplished consultants and veteran
managers from a variety of business fields.”
Rabinovitz got his start with a degree in business
administration from Hofstra University. For years,
he worked in the accounting and auditing industry;
During 2002, he became an audit partner at Stonefield
Josephson, a large Los Angeles-based accounting firm.
His transition to working independently happened
naturally, he explained. “Stonefield became my client,
30 THE SUIT DECEMBER 2010
and I’m doing business development for them now,”
he said. “It was the best of both worlds. My office is
still based there, but I’m independent from them. It
was just a great opportunity for me.”
In addition to serving as president of Proactive
Professional Solutions, Rabinovitz also started a project
called The Original Mixer, which provides successful
business professionals an excellent opportunity to
network with their peers.
“Back in 2001 when I first moved to Los Angeles, I
was invited to a small Monday night dinner group,”
Rabinovitz recalls. He realized that networking in a
social environment was a productive way to conduct
business, and he took the initiative to expand on the
idea. “It metamorphosed into a group of anywhere
between 250 and 400 people, meeting on a bi-
monthly basis to do business with the people they’re
friends with.” While attendees enjoy a free night of
food and drinks, companies sponsoring the event—
often entrepreneurial ventures and emerging growth
companies—have a table set up where they can meet
with their peers and spread the word about their
business.
Whether organizing business mixers, being Vice-
President of ACG 101 or offering expert advice to
clients at Proactive Professional Solutions, Rabinovitz
is an innovative leader in the Los Angeles business
world. He looks forward to the continued growth of
his young company, and he’s focused on providing
specialized service to every one of his diverse clients.
“The world is an ever-changing place, as are businesses’
fluctuating needs,” says Rabinovitz on his company’s
official website [insert link]. “As a trusted advisor, we
pledge to continually listen to our clients and enhance
our offerings to satisfy their needs.”
Razi & Associates, Inc.
Enhancing Individual and Organizational Performance
by Gary Stevens
Dr. Kathleen Razi is an author, speaker, college
professor, and business owner. Her company, Razi &
Associates, seeks to maximize organizations’ potential
by enhancing the relationships between employees,
managers and the company itself. The business,
based in Westlake, Ohio, is a small but far-reaching
female-owned company that represents businesses
and individuals, primarily in the health care industry.
Dr. Razi holds a Ph.D., from Kent State University,
with an emphasis in Organization Development
and Career Development. Razi began her career
teaching career development courses for adults and
currently teaches management, team building and
organizational behavior in the business division of
Baldwin Wallace College. Simultaneously she realized
that she had the talents and experience necessary to
start her own firm; today, Razi & Associates has been
doing business for over 20 years, taking on clients
in her own community and as far away as Europe.
Razi’s work has many facets. A company may
contact her because an employee who was identified
as a potential manager has not blossomed as expected.
Razi offers, “Maybe the individual does not understand
that being a manager involves other roles such as
coaching or mentoring employees or even socializing
with clients”. Other organizations might feel that
there is a lack of communication between management
and lower-level employees. Still others may seek to
amend some unidentifiable source of inefficiency. No
two jobs are the same for Razi & Associates, so she
responds with “a plan for organizational and individual
effectiveness that is customized to the client,” she said.
“I may interview employees, conduct focus groups
or use surveys as part of a possible intervention”.
Different problems require different assessment
tools, she said. “The standard 360 approach—looking
at the problem from everyone’s perspective—can be
useful, but I like the WSP, or Work Style Preference
assessment. It opens up the conversation between
individuals and managers and gets to a deeper level
with regard to positions in the company.” Using the
WSP she can “look at the convergence of information
about individuals, managers and the job,” she said.
Working with universities, health clinics/hospitals,
“Clients are
now seeking
help because
certain issues
can no longer
be ignored and
need to be
addressed within
organizations.”
manufacturing, organizations as well as counties and
municipalities has given Razi a broad perspective. Razi
works hard to bring her expertise to each client to create the
best possible solution for the client’s specific concerns.
The changing economy has had an impact on Razi’s
work. “Clients are now seeking help because certain
issues can no longer be ignored and need to be
addressed within organizations”. Due to the current
economic conditions, people are more fearful or
cautious about making a career change if they still
have a job. When the economy is good, more people
look for new jobs, career changes and executive
coaching.” Razi believes we need accountability
and alignment between our vision, values and goals.
We also wanted her insights into the coaching
industry as a whole. She responded: “It’s a
growing industry, with growing pains which will
also lead to ethical and licensing issues.” She urges
caution in selecting a coach and making sure the
relationship is one that will work for the client.
As for the new heath care bill, Razi analyzes the
situation with compassion: “We need to ensure
that we all have health care. Not having coverage
for people with pre-existing conditions is unfair.
Capping coverage, canceling a child’s coverage
are things that do not make sense,” she said.
In the end, Razi is confident that her business will
continue to bring better solutions to companies
that want to improve. She is proud of the work
she has done so far, and the lessons she has
learned along the way. Her advice to young people
embarking in her profession is simple: “Be true
to yourself and don’t compromise your values.”
2010 DECEMBER THE SUIT 31
 Establishing a Conscience
Rosamund Thomas, left of center, with Chinese
delegates attending a seminar at the UK Centre.
For the past twenty years Dr. Rosamund
Thomas, Founding Trustee of the UK Centre for
Business and Public Sector Ethics, has been an
indefatigable advocate for a saner, more equitable
way of conducting the business of civilization.
The UK Centre, established in Cambridge in 1988,
was “the first educational non-profit in Europe to
research and disseminate a modern form of ethics
information framed in the language of business, as
opposed to philosophy or religion,” Thomas said
in an exclusive interview with The Suit Magazine.
Topics which the Centre has tackled include business
ethics, ethics in government, environmental ethics
and sustainability, corporate governance, corporate
social responsibility, anti-corruption, human rights
for businesses, and equality/diversity. The Centre also
works to foster the Millennium Development Goals, a UN
project aimed at meeting world-hunger goals by 2015.
Thomas has noticed a change in corporate culture
since the recent financial crisis, beginning in 2008.
“There’s been a shift from an emphasis on compliance
to a behavioral change,” she said. “Regulations can
32 THE SUIT DECEMBER 2010
in the Minds of
Business and
Government
only go so far. The conduct of the bankers was
excessive, [with] greed and bonuses. We can’t deal
with their conduct sufficiently unless they put their
own house in order.” That will require two sets of
codes for public companies: corporate governance
codes and stewardship codes. As an example, she
referenced speeches by the chairmen of Barclay’s
and the Lloyds Banking Group at a City of London
Conference she attended. “They, and others, claimed
that the will was there, but not the way. I challenged
that. The way is there: mandatory ethics training
and looking longer term,” she asserted. “In the
Civil Service in the U.K. there are codes of conduct,
which are made part of the terms and conditions of
employment. We can do that for financiers as well,
in place of their bonuses in employment contracts.”
In the US, a financial reform package was recently
passed, but it is only the first step in regulation.
“The Dodd -Frank Act 2010 provides for technical
regulation and compliance, but there is a need for
ethical behavioral concern,” she said. So instead of
just complaining about the US being behind the curve
on ethical reform, Thomas is doing something about
it; she’s setting up a US-based Centre for Business
and Public Sector Ethics, of which she is the President.
The US Ethics Centre will work at the governmental
level with the US Office of Government Ethics and the
World Bank in Washington, as well as other initiatives
already begun in the US. Financial support is sought
from US business corporations, US foundations
and interested individuals. The US Centre has
achieved federal tax exemption. A conference to
launch the Centre will be held in the spring of 2011.
Thomas is also currently working on a book,
“Business Ethics,” to be published in March 2011,
which includes reflections on the recent financial
crises in the US and the UK and suggests remedies
for the future (ISBN 1-871891-04-3). It will be a
part of the series “Teaching Ethics,” for which the UK
Centre has already published “Government Ethics”
and “Environmental Ethics.” The lessons in these
volumes have already entered into teaching and
practice in leading institutions around the world.
 On a more personal level, Thomas’s foundation is
her training in public and social administration, with
a strong background in developing countries. She was
a Fulbright Scholar at Harvard University, where she
pursued doctoral and postdoctoral research in both
business and government, and she also held the highest
international Fellowship of the American Association of
University Women for her postdoctoral work. Thomas
also worked as a higher-up for the Bank of England,
so she is well-equipped to study ethical and financial
banking issues. In addition, she held a fellowship at
Cambridge University and has maintained a relationship
with the institution ever since, collaborating
with them on important projects and using their
facilities to hold Centre conferences and seminars.
Since 1995, the UK Centre has
expanded its reach to China,
Spain and Greece, focusing on
“The ordinary people
anti-corruption, human rights
and corporate governance.
bear the brunt, not
China is a special case. After
15 years of resisting foreign
the rich. There will be
influence, they are now
sending senior civil servants
more homelessness.
and ministers to relevant
seminars, including many at
Corporate social
the Ethics Centre. “Of course,
they are interested in wanting
responsibility and to social responsibility and
presents a strong challenge
development, the UK Centre recently received a grant
from HSBC but does need considerably more funding.
As an entrepreneur, she has had to meet with corporate
and governmental heavyweights of the economic world.
But she has welcomed the challenge enthusiastically.
“One banker told me, ‘what you’re doing is bold, Dr.
Thomas.’ “You have to take a stand, she said, and go
new places without fear. But you also have to make
sure your research is up-to-date, do careful fact-
checking, and take calculated and responsive risks.”
Regarding the wider economy, the effects of financial
cutbacks on the culture at large are important to
Thomas. “The lower and middle classes are paying
the consequences for the banking crisis, [whereas]
the bankers should have
taken smaller bonuses.” She
adds ruefully, She fears
that without intervention,
the current British coalition
government will implement
its proposed cut backs
on child support services,
pensions and state welfare.
She feels that the internet

to know about the financial

crisis and the mistakes
business ethics ethics in business. “While
making it more difficult to
that were made, as well as
showing an interest in ethics,
[dictate] that the rich suppress information, the
facts are parlayed loosely and
good governance and best
practices,” she said. “ They
do more to deal with exploitative scams abound, so
we must be more discerning
have learned the lesson of the
Soviet Union. Authoritarian
hardship.” than ever,” she explains. Both
the UK Centre for Business
bureaucracy creates a vacuum and Public Sector Ethics and
[in combination with capitalist the US Centre serve as guard-
profits], and corruption fills the gap. So [China] is posts, as well as frontier expeditions, in the fight to
taking steps to be more careful as they move forward. cultivate business and governmental ethical integrity.
We are also seeing interest from Nigeria; they are
justifiably worried about scams.” In Europe, the
UK Centre is currently playing an advisory role for
Spanish multi-nationals, providing ethics, human
rights and environmental impact assessments.

Thomas has given a lecture tour in India on behalf

of Centre for Business and Public Sector Ethics where
she addressed universities, a Parliamentary Committee
in Delhi, state-owned businesses and chambers of
commerce. She keeps links with these institutions via her
publications in India on ethics and by working on projects.

Thomas has noticed a shift in corporate giving over

the years. “For the first 10 to 15 years, ethics wasn`t
on corporate donor-funder lists. Since 2000 there is
actually more giving, in this field, not necessarily to The scenic River Cam runs through Cambridge
[our] Centre, but in general,” she said. In an encouraging near the UK Centre.

2010 DECEMBER THE SUIT 33


by Jean Paul
Brad Buchanan, President of Geotel Corporation, based
in Columbia, Missouri, runs a news aggregate firm,
which he has dubbed “Newz Group.” He supplies news
content to countless newspapers around the country.
Over the years, he had envisioned the technological
evolution hitting the news market. He acknowledged
that many journalism schools had predicted the
slow demise in the rough and tumble print industry.
The ink in the print media was beginning to dry
up, virtually being replaced by the Internet boon.
“It’s part of the technological evolution. Hard copy
newspaper and evolution of newspapers,” Buchanan
vividly explained during an interview with The Suit
Magazine. “Slowly, little by little the newspaper
industry has turned to the electronic media.”
For example, Buchanan said, “The Philadelphia
Enquirer had taken a hard economic blow, and it was
rumored that it might close. That’s a sad reality in the
United States,” he added. “That strikes at the heart of our
First Amendment Rights and our Freedom of Speech.”
He contends that newspapers are a vital source in
a thriving Democracy. They keep society honest.
34 THE SUIT DECEMBER 2010
Geotel Corporation:
News Link in
Newspaper Industry
In the 1920s, investigative reporters were called
“Muckrakers, and they often served as the watchdogs,
keeping politicians clean from corruption. We are
dedicated to the proposition that all news is not created
equally. Newspapers continue to be the bulwark of
credentialed journalism in the world,” Buchanan
said. “Blogs and many other news outlets may be
interesting, but newspapers are the most accurate,
thorough, and complete news sources available.”
Today, he remains resolute in the newspaper
market place. “We service 14 states in the Midwest,”
he said. “We also work with all the newspapers in
Missouri. And we work with many press association.”
Buchanan still believes that newspapers are a
vital component in the American Democracy.
He said many people “depend on newspaper
information for planning, decision-making, or
analyzing the consequences of public policy.”
According to Buchanan, information experts
believe that newspapers today still serve as the
“most accurate and comprehensive resource for
gathering data and gauging public opinion.” He
believes that the there is a difference between
Goggle news and newspapers, adding, “In an era
when misinformation has become increasingly
important---there is no substitute for newspapers.”
In 1995, Buchanan formed Newz Group. He also
began monitoring print-based media when he
acquired the Arkansas Newspaper Clipping Service,
which had been in operation since the mid 1930's.
“Not much had changed since then, they still used
scissors and paste as the principle technological
tools,” he said. “Newz Group recognized that, with
the application of electronic technologies, efficiencies
might be created. Also, we realized that geographic
expansion might create market leverage, if other
newspaper monitoring services could be acquired.”
Over the following years, Newz Group established
affiliations with 13 additional state press
associations, largely in the Midwest, and integrated
new technologies to streamline the extraction and
delivery of articles. Complete statewide legal and
public notices for eight states are posted on web
sites powered by Newz Group. The company has
been a pioneer in the industry. They developed
innovative content reuse agreements with their clients.
Newz Group adheres to three guiding principles,
which Buchanan calls: “The three ‘I's,’---Integrity,
Initiative and Innovation, which govern the actions of
each individual in the company,” he said. “Whenever
you interface with Newz Group, you can expect all
relations to be characterized by these three traits.”
The company currently monitors over 40% of all
newspapers published within the United States.
He said, “Our electronic delivery method makes
managing your newspaper coverage quick and easy!”
His company ultimately formulated the Clipz
Clerk which helps make managing your coverage
easy. “Rather than waiting until the end of the
month to study readership, equivalent ad rates, and
circulation numbers, you have all that information
instantly with the click of a mouse,” he added.
He said the Clipz Management Report offers a
comprehensive monthly breakdown of important
information, relevant to articles, which fulfills all of
your monitoring needs. Newz Group can store all
of your relevant news digitally. He said, “all your
clippings are in a text-searchable PDF file format
and are saved on a CD-Rom for ease of retrieval.”
“Through our partnership with Idea Works, Newz Group
now offers in depth analysis of your news coverage,”
Buchanan said. “These analytics are customizable
to any need. This high capacity text analysis gives
qualitative feedback on your news coverage.”
Newz Group offers a full range of journalistic
services in an efficient and cost-effective way.
Buchanan has grown with the technology of
our time, combining and streamlining diverse
newspaper functions so that we can have access
to the explosion of information happening today.

Arkansas | Colorado | Iowa | Kansas | Kentucky | Missouri | New Mexico | North Dakota |
South Carolina | South Dakota | Texas | West Virgina | Wyoming | Michigan

Legal Notices

Newz Group currently hosts a number of free legal and public notice websites for the
Press Associations of Colorado, Iowa, Missouri, South Dakota, Wyoming, Michigan,
Kansas and North Dakota. Many more states will be added soon. These websites,
provided courtesy of the state Press Associations, makes viewing legal and public
government notices easier than ever. Our comprehensive scope provides the most
extensive coverage of legal and public notices available on the web.

2010 DECEMBER THE SUIT 35

 In The World of Information Technology:
Thomas G. Therborn Corners the Market
by Jean Paul
Thomas G. Therborn, CEO and Managing Director,
of Spring Consulting, originally cut his teeth in the IT
field ten years ago, when he took the corporate plunge
and launched his own boutique firm. The company
was established in 2000 and is based in Stockholm,
Sweden with additional office in Kolbtn, Norway.
In 2006, Spring Consulting AS formed a subsidiary of
EDB Business Partner ASA. In fact, Spring Consulting
has recruited 50 new employees that year, and now
has a total staff 180 people. Consulting and SAP have
identified a number of focus areas that offer significant
potential for growth, generating over $150 million euros.
“You have to be open-minded, innovative
and forward thinking,” Therborn said from his
corporate headquarters in Sweden, “In order to
explore business opportunities. And you have to
develop a high-level of diplomatic, verbal and
negotiation skills to be successful in business.’
Today, he coaches medium and large companies
in areas of business, utilizing his subsidiary
company,“EDB Consulting Group” building its
resources to become the leading Nordic consulting
firm for SAP. Based on in-depth specialization, “We
develop close relationships with our customers through
a long-term involvement based on confidence and
credibility. EDB Consulting Group was the first - and
is so far the only - Nordic SAP Partner,” Therborn said.
He said EDB offers multifaceted consultants in
Norway, Sweden and Denmark, “With extensive
cross-border interaction. All our consultant
have extensive experience of SAP,” he said.
He has worked in unison with EDB, building one of
the premier Nordic firms in IT services. “Our company
offers the entire range of business-critical IT services
36 THE SUIT DECEMBER 2010
from consulting and industry specific solutions,” he
added. “Everything we do is designed to help our
customers get more from their investment in IT.”
Therborn attended University of Lund, and holds
a Bachelor Science in Computer Science, and then
later enrolled at the Stockholm School of Economics
where he received his Executive MBA-IT, MBA.
Therborn said Nordic customers are searching
for supplier capable of taking on responsibility
for everything involved in a SAP project, from
design and implementation through to systems
operations and management of SAP solutions.
He said customers could attain major savings
by optimizing the value chain. He points out
that Spring Consulting can help to reduce the
lifetime cost of a SAP system by some 20% -30%.
Therborn said his company offers a competitive
portfolio of software solution that improve “our
customer’s efficiency and help them to strengthen
their relationships with their customers with a
particularly strong position in solutions for the public
sector and for the banking and finance market.”
The firm has executed a business model that
guarantees a free-flow of consulting resources. “I
apply a high degree of personal and business ethics
in the corporate world, encouraging a culture that
upholds the highest possible standard of integrity,
quality and transparency in all transactions,” he said.
Its clientele includes Sony Ericsson, SCA, Sandvik,
Nobel Biocare, and Folksam. "I am dedicated to exploring
emerging markets opportunities," Therborn said.
"Enhancing daily productivity and delivering outstanding
returns to shareholders and value added to clients."
 An Entrepreneur with the
“Easy Key to Life”
by Josephine Heinrich
Beverly Keyes Taylor,
entrepreneur, personal
improvement coach,
and CEO of the Easy
Key to Life Institute,
has taken a long and
winding career path
to get to where she
is today. She first
dreamed of being
a teacher, and she began doing just that when
she first entered the workforce years ago.
However, she later decided to get into high-tech
business. For 18 years she worked for different
companies, including Apple Computer. There, she
was the second most requested speaker at the
Apple Corporate Briefing Center, where she made
presentations to top business leaders in many
industries. She is also an award-winning author
and speaker. Now she’s enjoying a combined career
as an internet marketing coach and a renowned
hypnotherapist with certification training—in a way,
she is back where she started: an educator once again,
teaching people how to change their lives. “I love
teaching and I have always tried to help people, to
make their lives easier and better,” she told The Suit.
Sketching Success
by Mark Nayler
As a schoolboy passionate about drawing and nature,
Julian Kernes laid the foundation for a successful
career in graphic design. Kernes is now the president
of his own company, JKE Graphics. Based in Trenton
New Jersey and specializing in graphic design and
preparations for screen printing, embroidery logo
designs and layouts for paper printing—business
cards, stationery and brochures in particular—JKE
enjoys a reputation as a small company with quality
output. Kernes is also a member of the Trenton Artist
Workshop Association, and in 2007 he was named
a Princeton Premiers Honored Member in Business.
Kernes’s desire to draw was with him from an
early age, and he realized a knack for design when
he transitions from sketching to drawing with
ink. “When I was little I always liked to draw, and I
used to carry a sketch pad around. Then, later on,
I met some friends at Bucks County Community
College. They were doing comic book art, so I
that she doesn’t need her clients in front of her.
Beverly Taylor has a passion for helping other small
businesses—to ensure their success in an era of ever-
evolving technology, she teaches article internet
marketing. Her article marketing publishing creates
a global spread of information to support people and
businesses. Taylor’s business, called Offline Local
to Offline Global, capitalizes on her hard-earned
knowledge in online marketing. “I studied internet
marketing for years before I actually got started,”
she explains. “It was such a struggle.” After much
trial and error, Taylor fine-tuned her approach,
and now she is happy to help other entrepreneurs
expand their businesses via the internet. “I found the
right method. This method works, because it builds
trust and creates a relationship. I like that, because I
believe very strongly in integrity,” she told The Suit.
With her wealth of experience and accolades,
Taylor is looking forward to more success in the
new year. She told us, “In my work I have learned to
talk to people in ways that resonate with them. It is
more effective, creates trust, increases business and
profits. In other words: I teach the easy key to life.”
Website: www.offline2onlinebiz.com
Website: www.easykeytolife.com
started learning graphics and drawing with a pen.”
At Bucks, a teacher encouraged Kernes to look to
the natural world for artistic inspiration. “I remember
him saying, ‘If you want to know about design, look
at nature.’ And a lot of times I would come up with
a pattern based on a flower or a tree or some sort
of natural setting, and then turn it into a graphic.”
Kernes later earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Art
from the Philadelphia College of Art. He has built
upon his talent often combining hand drawn art
and refined it using computer graphics programs
eventually built upon his hand-eye coordination
designing directly with computer graphics programs.
He is dedication to guarantee his business’s continued
success, even in these dire economic times. “Because
I don’t have a boss standing over me all the time, I
can work a little bit more relaxed, and I can think
a little more clearly. People have always liked
what I do, and I’m getting more work than ever.”
2010 DECEMBER THE SUIT 37
 Justice For All?
by Gary Stevens
Alleged HIV-tainted blood distributed to
hemophiliacs—charges of sexual abuse within the
Catholic Church—first-degree murder charges
against a scientist after the death of his wife. Enter
criminal defense attorney Michael J. Neville, motivated
by righteousness. “Defense counsel should work
to ensure that the state plays by the rules, that
procedural/evidentiary rules are followed, and
that the presumption of innocence is given its full
weight,” he told the Suit Magazine in November.
Working on cases which have captured Canada’s
national attention, Neville channels his indignation into
passionate and persuasive presentations to the jury.
In the heat of the courtroom he represented one of the
defendants in the case involving allegedly tainted blood,
where three former senior Canadian health officials and
a U.S. firm, the Armour Pharmaceutical Company, were
charged with criminal negligence in the distribution
of tainted blood products beginning in 1982.
Dr. Wark Boucher, former head of the Blood Products
Division of the Canadian Bureau of Biologics, was
Neville’s client. In 1997, the Canadian Hemophiliac
Society had sent a letter to the Royal Canadian Mounted
Police (RCMP) reporting tainted blood products in
the mid-1980s. A Royal Commission/Public Inquiry
was convened, and over the next five years the RCMP
conducted an investigation. Then, twenty years after
the alleged offense, the case was sent to trial before
Ontario Superior Justice Mary Lou Benotto, in 2002.
After cross-examining the Crown’s witnesses,
Neville and the other defense counsel took a risk.
They presented no defense, but instead went straight
to closing arguments. Her Honor’s ruling vindicated
that decision. Not only did she rule that the Crown
counsel had failed to prove a case, but she ruled that
the defense line of reasoning had effectively disproved
the case. “It was a wonderful victory,” he said. “My
client had been charged with the ‘wanton and reckless
disregard for the well-being of others.’ My client
was a fine human being. So to even use that phrase
was unacceptable.” In the mid-1980s, according to
Neville, “little was known about HIV.” In addition, the
prosecutors had made the closing argument that the
defendants had “sacrificed” the health of Canadian
citizens. Neville countered, “That is a disgraceful
argument, presumably made to speak to the media.”
The scientist charged with first-degree murder was
also well-represented by Neville, with no help from
other attorneys during trial. Neville exposed one great
weakness in the prosecution’s case—a junk-science
38 THE SUIT DECEMBER 2010
practitioner of toxicology who had taken the stand
as a witness. The judge ruled that the prosecution’s
evidence was inadmissible because it was faulty
science; the judge wouldn’t even qualify him as an
expert. In fact, a second Crown witness recanted
his testimony at a later date. His Honor issued a
stay of the proceedings, finding the prosecution
guilty of unreasonable delay. After the verdict, the
dramatic case got airtime as a documentary on a
Canadian Broadcasting Company radio broadcast.
In 1996, Neville defended the Catholic Church in
a scandal that rocked the province of Ontario. The
whole controversy started when his client, Reverend
Charles McDonald, was accused of sexual abuse. That
stretched into 2002—endless issues—finally, again,
a stay of proceedings—again the prosecution was
found guilty of unreasonable delay. “A rogue police
officer had refused to cooperate. The purported
victim turned out to be non-credible,” he remembered,
seeming to shake his head over the phone.
During his career, Neville also encountered the
legendary Jimi Hendrix, rock guitar master of the ‘60s.
John O’Driscoll, a friend and mentor from his school
days at the University of Toronto law school, introduced
him to Hendrix. “[O’Driscoll] defended Jimi on a heroin
charge and invited me to meet him. He was a shy, polite,
nice man surrounded by greasy hangers-on, like the
entourage of a heavyweight champion,” he explained.
Looking back, he fondly remembers his uncle and
godfather, Al Neville, a criminal lawyer, who first
planted the seed for Neville’s legal career. Later, he
received encouraging words from Joseph James, a
judge in Toronto, interned/articled with Bill Green, and
served as law clerk to Chief Justice Gale, where he also
met the legendary G. Arthur Martin. He learned well.
“Personal integrity is your most fundamental
asset,” Neville pauses, “you should not risk it.”
That sense of integrity ignites a desire to do the
right thing, and it carries into his work. Going
against the grain, he defends those who many of us
tend to stereotype. These types of cases are prone
to sensationalism; in court, they require a fair and
vigorous defense. “The complexity and seriousness
of my cases has gone up over the years,” he said.
Neville is also concerned about the politicizing
of the criminal justice system. “Criminal law is a
blunt instrument, ill-suited for social change. When
combined with zero-tolerance, taking away discretion,
you have a perfect recipe for miscarriages of justice
because one size does not fit all,” he asserted.
SMOOTH COMMUNICATIONS WITH
INVESTORS AND SHAREHOLDERS
For close to twenty years, Lisa Ciota has
honed her skills at one of the most successful
enterprises in the world, McDonald’s
Corporation—a company that certainly
knows how to get its message across.
As Director of Investor Relations
for McDonald’s and the CFO’s lead
communications specialist, Ciota was in
a key position, steering the production
of several award-winning annual reports
and crafting the CFO’s messages for
key presentations. And her range of
expertise extended even further than that; she
was a member of the capital structure team, which
analyzed cash flow projections and recommended
dividend and cash returns to shareholders.
“I saw that investor relations was my forte—
requiring a unique combination of technical, strategic
and creative skills,” Ciota said in her interview with
The Suit Magazine. “So I went out on a limb. During
my time at McDonald’s, I had seen opportunities
out there, but I was not quite ready.” That changed
in 2010, when she made the leap and started her
own firm, Strategic & Investor Communications.
The firm, which works with publicly traded small
to mid-cap ($1 billion to $10 billion in market
capitalization) companies, covers the gamut of investor
and shareholder relations functions: investor relations,
financial communications, C-suite executive speeches
and script writing, annual reports, corporate social
responsibility, socially responsible investing, and retail
investing. “The basic skills of investor relations are
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transferable across industries,” she said. So her company
has the ability to service multiple types of businesses.
She explained that presenting information to the
shareholder or investor involves more than the
traditional reiteration of facts; it’s an art. “You have to
tell the story in a credible and transparent manner, but
transparency does not mean you have to overwhelm
the investor with immaterial information,” she said.
At the same time, Ciota is dealing with serious
issues. “You have to communicate complex ideas to
corporate managers and investors,” she explained.
In face-to-face meetings, or leading a webinar, her
self-confidence and fortitude are essential elements
in the mix. She added, “One of my former bosses
told me, ‘don’t underestimate what you bring to the
table, and keep that in mind when you negotiate.’”
What Ciota brings to the table is her training, experience
and knowledge, as well as a winning personality. Prior
to working at McDonald’s, Ciota earned a BS in finance
at the University of Illinois and an MBA at Northern
Illinois University. After that, Ciota cut her teeth in the
banking and financial service industries for seven years.
“I ended up in bank operations doing stock distribution
and proxy tabulations,” she said. But that did not
satisfy her ambition and talent, and her subsequent
performance at McDonald’s attests to her attributes.
Ciota has now brought those tools to bear in
Strategic & Investor Communications, her own vision
of corporate communications. It was a risky move,
but Ciota has made a name for herself as a successful
entrepreneur in a shaky economy; now, her award-
winning services are available to a wider audience.
 B e a l e s
Be a l e s
P
Peter
e t e r

From Country Bumpkin to

by Gary Stevens

“I love my plants.” Those four words, spoken by

Peter Beales, are the foundation for his successful rose
nursery and business, Peter Beales Roses Ltd. Today,
growing over 250,000 roses per year and exporting
as far as Japan and China, he has taken a personal
passion and transformed it into a service that enriches
people’s lives with the beauty and grace of his roses.

Beales traces his work back to humble beginnings. “I

was born in rural Norfolk, where there wasn’t much
choice: bricklayer, farmer, builder,” he recalls. “At
school, I watered the nursery. I had an affinity for it; I
took an interest in what I was doing. I worked for five
years at a nursery, studying horticulture and botany.”
His talent for horticulture was put on hold for a short
time while he took a larger look at life. “I joined the
royal artillery, spent two years in national service,
and saw there was a big wide world out there, which I
hadn’t been aware of as a country bumpkin,” he laughs.

After completing his national service, Beales worked at

a rose nursery in the south of England, but he was soon
faced with a choice. “I had two options: an advanced
degree or starting out on my own. So I rented a small
piece of land in Surrey and built a house on borrowed
money,” he says. With his natural knack for the rose
business, Beales soon moved on to greener pastures.
“In the 1960’s I cashed in,” he adds, “and I had enough
to buy a small nursery back at my roots in Norfolk:
two and a half acres and a small house. Then I moved
on to 10 acres in Attleborough, took on staff, and
began to show at Chelsea and other national shows.”

The 10-acre nursery in Attleborough has now grown

into one the biggest rose nurseries in
England, raising more than 250,000
roses each year. With a quiet pride
and dignity, Beales relates, “We
publish a catalogue, direct to public;

40 THE SUIT DECEMBER 2010

 World
worldLeaders
leadersininClassic
ClassicRoses
Roses

Horticultural Impresario
we’ve won 20 gold medals at the
Chelsea flower show, [as well as]
gold medals at many other shows.”
Beales has also demonstrated keen
business acumen by expanding his
enterprise in several ways. He says,
”We have a mail order business, 24-
hour arrangements with carriers,
and we even send to garden centers in Japan and China.”

Even in the rose business, however, Beales pointed out

that bureaucracy interferes with the flow of operations.
“We have a small window in April because of ‘plant health’.
Not anything to do [really] with health, but regulations
say you need soil inspection – we do it every two years;
America requires it every year. “Red tape” he laments.

Peter Beales Roses Ltd. is a very personal enterprise:

a way to express his affinity for people as well as his
affinity for plants. And he makes sure to credit those
who have helped him along the way. “I had a great
mentor, Edward Legrice, at my first job. I also learned a
lot in the army. I was the driver for a captain, who was
good at man management. I learned a lot, especially
the importance of motivation,” he said. “I make sure
that my staff enjoy their jobs and that I provide a
reasonable salary. One of my employees has been
with me 28 years; another has been with me 25 years.”

As a successful businessman, Beales knows how to stay

afloat financially. “My advice to anyone starting out as an
entrepreneur is to take a foundation course in running a
business. Marketing is key, maybe even more important
than growing, so we have an expert marketing team.”

It is also important to Beales that the nursery operates

in a way that is consistent with the green movement. He
explains, “We are totally in tune with the environmental
movement. Peat is depleting rapidly, so we substitute
coconut fiber and other [more sustainable] products.”

Peter Beales Roses Ltd. has proven to be

fertile soil for Beales’s inherent passion and
talents. His children are getting involved in the
family business, and the future looks bright.

2010 DECEMBER THE SUIT 41

 K inleining
A New Approach to Holistic Care
In 1971, a little
known cadet nurse
at the Catholic
University of
America opened her office to patients who wanted to
talk. She wasn’t just concerned about their medical
conditions; she wanted to learn about anything that
was bothering them. At the time, Lucille Kinlein’s
was the first such office in the world. But she would
go on to establish her unique method—known
today as Kinleining—as a major practice in the US.
Offices offering that service now span the country
from Alaska to Washington. These practitioners are all
united by a core belief in treating the person rather
than just the condition, and in the healing powers of
willpower. It may sound simple, but the philosophy
that underpins the approach is far-reaching. The
Suit wanted to know what drew Lucille Kinlein to
her unique method in the first place, and to find out
more about the basic principles of her philosophy.
Kinlein didn’t set out to study nursing. She was
a college sophomore studying Latin and Greek in
Maryland when World War II broke out, and then she
felt compelled to do something different in order to
contribute to the war effort. “I wanted to help in any
way I could,” she says, and so she joined the Cadet
Nurse Corps after graduating from college in 1943.
Later, Kinlein studied nursing at the Catholic
University of America in Washington. It was there, in
1971, that a life-changing moment altered her path
forever. “The moment came when I knew I had to open
my own office. I didn’t have enough time to listen to
the patients and hear what they wanted to talk about,
because I had to carry out medical treatment for all
of them. And so time was limited... but they wanted
to talk about things other than medical conditions.”
Unhappy with a schedule that didn’t permit her to
give patients the care they needed, she realized she
42 THE SUIT DECEMBER 2010
by Mark Nayler
had to make an independent fresh start. “I knew I
had to open my own office in order to offer the care
that people could not get [due to the] control that
medical care had over the treatment of patients.”
Early reactions to Kinlein’s brand of holistic care were
swift and encouraging; it seemed that this was precisely
what people had been looking for. “The clients named it
Kinleining, and they said, ‘I cannot get this kind of care
anywhere else. It’s what I want, it’s what I need, and
you’re the only one who offers me the opportunity to
talk about it.’” Kinlein was happy to see that her newly
launched discipline was clearly answering a human need
for personal care with a focus on overall well-being.
Colleagues in the nursing profession started coming
to Kinlein to learn about her developing practice, and
in 1979 Kinlein left the nursing profession for good
and declared the foundation of a new profession. “The
ones that wanted to study with me asked if I would
teach them,” she said, “because I did have an academic
background teaching in a university setting. So I started
the Institute of Kinlein.” www.kinlein.org There, her
techniques are thoroughly explained to anyone who
wants to practice her brand of healthcare. But what are
these techniques, and how do they benefit patients?
When a client comes into an office for guidance, Kinlein
says, it is entirely up to them what they wish to talk
about: “The clients come in and say, ‘Where do you want
me to start, and what do you want me to tell you?’ And
of course, the answer is: ‘However you want to start,
whatever you want to say and however you want to say
it.’” Free expression enables clients to address whatever
problems they wish to concentrate on, so they begin to
talk. While the client speaks, “the Kinleiner writes every
word while maintaining eye contact with the client, to
show that they’re listening. The Kinleiner sits quietly
and makes no sound or movement because the client is
working out what they want to say, and you don’t want
to interrupt that,” says Kinlein. “There’s a significance
to recording words in this profession; it’s extremely
important. The word becomes sacrosanct, almost.”
Subsequently, parts of the transcript are repeated back
to the client by the Kinleiner. It is a gentle mirroring
process that reflects the client’s use of language, and
it is the essence of Kinlein’s approach. “So whatever
the client talks about, the Kinleiner
works with the words that identify
the thought processes, and quotes
them back,” she explains. Clients
are then encouraged to examine
their own expressions from an
outsider’s perspective, which helps
them gain objectivity in regarding
their own feelings and anxieties.
Hearing back the content of their
own monologues, observes Kinlein,
can often surprise people. “Clients
will say, ‘I didn’t say that!’ Then
they’ll become interested in what
we’ve written and say, ‘Could I look
at it please?’” The Kinleiner’s role
is to allow the client total freedom of expression,
and then use a methodical focus on language to
guide them to areas of concern of which they were
previously unaware. In this way, the client gains a
fresh insight into their inner life and begins to apply
a philosophical approach to the problems they face.
Kinlein has made her journey from the study of
languages, philosophy and nursing to a position as the
director of a professional association with 16 offices
across the US, and it hasn’t been easy. When she started,
she said to herself, “I don’t know if this is going to work,
and I don’t know if it’s going to fail. I
just know I have to do it.” Sustaining
her motivation through decades of
hard work is her strong belief in
the strength of human willpower.
“Everything comes from God, and yet
we have control over what is given to
us through our willpower,” she says.
Kinleining, as it is practiced by its
dedicated professionals all over the US,
empowers individuals by giving them
the philosophical tools with which to
approach everyday life. Although it
cannot directly eliminate adversity,
it enables its beneficiaries to gain a
new perspective on the nature of their
problems. As Kinlein herself reminds us, the existence of
adversity is no bar whatsoever to human achievement.
“When someone has a core goal in wanting to help
other people, accepting any setbacks but still pursuing
the objective, it’s amazing how things work out.”
“There’s a
significance to
recording words
in this profession;
it’s extremely
important. The
word becomes
sacrosanct, almost.”
2010 DECEMBER THE SUIT 43
 Finding Her Way :
Luena Darr’s Journey
with Theotherapy
by Sasha Haddocks
Luena Darr has surmounted a lifetime
of challenges, and now she’s in a
position to help others do the same.
Darr is the president and executive
director of Theotherapy Seminars, Inc,
which is a non-profit organization
dedicated to helping people better
their lives through Christian-based
training and seminars. Originally from Canada,
she has been coordinating Theotherapy ministries
throughout the United States for the past 29 years.
Darr decided to move to the United States. “I left
Canada, and my job as a Catholic school teacher in
Montreal and moved to San Diego, CA.” She enjoyed
the warmer climates, but soon fell into an unhealthy
relationship where she was rejected again. “In 1968
I married a man who had four children of his own. I
married for all the wrong reasons, I wanted to rescue
the children from a mother that was severely abusing
her children. What I didn’t understand was that I
was really trying to rescue my own little girl within”.
But six years later, Darr realized that she could move
on to better things. “In 1973, I experienced the Lord
in my life, and time stopped. Jesus was the answer
to my problems, so I began to study and learn.”
Darr had been working in the fields of administration
and accounting, but her career took a different turn
in 1981. She was asked to be a hostess to one of the
speakers at the Charismatic Conference being held
at Duquesne University, in Pittsburgh, PA where
she lived. She was appointed to Dr. Mario E. Rivera-
Mendez from San Juan, Puerto Rico. She was struck
by his novel approach to religion-based therapy. “At
the end of the seminar, I knew he had the answers
to all my problems,” she recalled. “Dr. Rivera took
me under his wing and taught me Theotherapy.”
Today, Darr oversees Theotherapy Seminars Inc.,
where she conducts God-given methods to impact
the lives of hurting people by utilizing weekend
seminars, workshops, Personal Growth and Ministry
Training (PGMT) courses, weekly ministry/support
groups and individual ministry. One innovative
program, called The Theotherapy Project, offers
help to prison inmates. By attending Theotherapy
sessions, both in jail and after their release, convicted
criminals can learn how to positively reintegrate
into society. Theotherapy is currently operating out
of 4 prisons in Tennessee and one in Pennsylvania.
44 THE SUIT DECEMBER 2010
The fast-paced world of the applied research has
served Bruce Beal well. He lives by the axiom, “Research
is a relationship business.” Today, he’s one of the
hardest-working entrepreneurs in corporate America;
in 2009, he single-handedly established his own firm,
Beal Research Support Services. It provides litigation
support, marketing research, public policy research and
political campaign support services. And those services
are rendered with an innovative pricing paradigm.
“There are inefficiencies built into the large
corporate model,” he explained. “When I worked
in larger firms, I had made an argument for a
different model with alternative pricing and other
elements. They had turned it down,” he explained,
“so I developed a business plan based on those ideas.”
That included a simplified pricing model: fixed-
median-pricing. “Research is a fast-moving business.
My pricing model allows a client to anticipate just
how much it will cost for increments of numbers
of people in focus groups and numbers of cities.”
The firm’s services include conducting market
research with focus groups, holding mock trials
for legal clients in order to test out arguments
and decide whether to settle or go to trial, public
policy research for organizations like AARP, and
political campaign support in terms of researching
public opinion and conducting debate preparation
for candidates. He now has clients whom he has
been handling for over ten years. In the future, he
expects to increase the volume of his work in the
areas of political support and public policy research.
After graduate school, Beal started out with a
business research firm owned by Steve Schlessinger.
It was Schlessinger who told him that research is a
relationship business, the axiom that inspires his
work. He explained, “I recruited for focus groups made
up of doctors, nurses, and medical professionals.
But I wanted to do research myself. So I worked for
a trial-consulting firm for a few years.” In January
2009, they reduced their work force, and Beal received
a severance package. “I thought it was a good time
to start out on my own. It was a tough time to find
a job anyway, and I had clients who said, ‘We want
to stay with you,’” he said. So he started his firm.”
His future looks bright for the new year. “This
is a bell-weather industry. Focus groups are the
first line of cutbacks when times are tough,” Beal
said at the end of the interview. “Companies ask,
‘How much will it be for less people and less cities?’
But I stopped hearing that six months ago; now
they want more people and more cities.” That’s
definitely a good sign for Beal Research Support
Services, and a good sign for our economy as a whole.
 Gange
Goodman
You may contact us at:
760-444 St. Mary Avenue
Winnipeg MB R3C 3T1
Tel: 953-5400
Fax: 947-0171
firm@gangegoodmanfrench.ca
William S. Gange, a partner with Gange, Goodman & French, has
always put the needs of his clients, staff, and family at the top of
his list of priorities. Handling cases in a way that reduces costs and
keeps the decision-making process in his clients’ hands as much
as possible, Gange has established a boutique law firm that can
handle large and small clients, both locally and internationally.
The firm’s expertise is civil litigation involving contractual
disputes, public inquiries, issues of liability and intellectual property
issues. With a strong background in insurance law, the team of seven
lawyers handles cases primarily in Canada’s Manitoba province.
Much of Gange’s work involves arbitration. “Not many cases go
to court. There’s a lot of dancing beforehand; it’s too expensive
to go to trial, and you’re putting the decision in the hands of a
third party,” Gange said in his interview with The Suit Magazine.
Gange has handled cases at every level of the Canadian legal
system. He tried a case which made its way to the Supreme Court
of Canada, involving a constitutional challenge to the validity
of Manitoba legislation. At the same time, Gange believes in
representing those who are not of means, in cases where he may
not receive robust compensation. “In one case, I acted for an
elderly woman whose husband was no longer competent,” he said.
“She was crotchety and short-tempered, but I got her the assistance
from the court that she required. When my child was born a year
later, she saw a notice and sent me $20. It was one of the most
sincere moments of appreciation of my career, and when she died
her son called me to tell me that his mom often spoke about me.”
His concern for the human impact of law also found expression
&
French
in an eight-year participation in the Manitoba Law Society. As
he explained, “In Canada, every province has a law society to
protect the public and a bar association to promote lawyers.
The law societies have focused on accessibility to the legal
system, making it affordable. The law societies also provide
input to lawyers, sometimes from non-lawyers, helping to
shorten the time to get a case into trial, with less game-playing.”
Gange’s emphasis on integrity has benefitted his firm in many
ways, one of which is receiving conflict referrals. “Disputes
arise where both parties are represented by the same 80-member
law firm,” he said. “So they have to have someone to send
one of the parties to without losing the client, and that’s us.”
When asked about suggestions for improving the Canadian
legal system, he quickly answered, “The appointment of judges
is the single most important ingredient to integrity – we need less
political interference,” elaborating, “In Canada there are provincial
and federal judges. The provincial system for choosing judges
is fair and transparent; you pick from three of the most qualified
candidates. At the federal level, the process is to just create a
list of ranked candidates labeled as either appropriate or non-
appropriate, and it takes political connections to make the list.”
In the end, William S. Gange has relied on some simple words in
order to maintain his perspective. One of his first legal positions
was with Kerr Twaddle & Associates. He said, “Kerr Twaddle
always stressed, ‘The most important thing in life is family, not
work’, and that has been the guiding principle of my law firm.”
2010 DECEMBER THE SUIT 45
 S olving the Puzzle of
by Michael Gordon
F
ood and Drug Law
“We’re here to serve the clients’ needs – usually
someone battling a crisis. Maybe the FDA is at
their door, or maybe they’ve just discovered a
contaminant in one of their products,” Diane
McColl commented in an interview with The Suit.
“It’s not just a 9-to-5 job; it’s a service industry. If
you like solving jigsaw puzzles, you’ll enjoy law.”
McColl is a top-notch lawyer with Hyman, Phelps &
McNamara, in Washington, D.C. With her dual expertise
in pharmacology and law, she has made an indelible
impression on the food and drug sector. The general
public can recognize the fruits of her work in the widely
used Dermabond brand, a medical product that helps to
close wounds or incisions without stitching – a product
for which McColl worked to earn regulatory approval.
Even as one of seventy attorneys in the firm, her
combination of knowledge in the fields of pharmacology
and law has set her apart. As an example of the work she
does, McColl explained, “Europe is now struggling with
how far you can go to describe a medical benefit. Health
benefits advertised on food products must be backed
by clinical data.” That’s where McColl comes in. “They
need to demonstrate health
benefits with clinical data.
My pharmacy background
helped me to understand
the science and see how it
fits into a legal regulatory
framework,” she explained.
McColl began her career
by working in the field of pharmacology, satisfying
a keen interest in biology. She had contemplated a
hospital pharmacy position, “but it didn’t pay enough,
so I worked for K-mart,” she laughs. But that didn’t
satisfy her talents or her career goals. Displaying the
intense resolve and adaptability that have served her
well throughout her life, she made a bold move when she
decided to go to the University ofSouthCarolina’sSchool
of Law. With no money to pay for it, she simply “walked
into the Dean’s office and asked, ‘How much do you
want to pay me to go to school?’” she said. Eventually,
she negotiated a scholarship and earned her law degree.
Since then, McColl has gained leagues of
experience; she has grown adept at navigating within
her areas of expertise – her ability to speak the
language of scientists, the language of regulatory
bureaucrats, and the language of the legal profession.
At the beginning of her law career, McColl worked
for Morlan, Lewin&Bancheu, where she was involved in
trade regulation and anti-trust matters. McColl took
a liking to her work on the trade regulation side and
decided she wanted “to be a food and drug lawyer.And I
wanted to be with the people who knew more than I did,
46 THE SUIT DECEMBER 2010
especially people with FDA experience,” she explained.
McColl set her sights on a position with Hyman,
Phelps & McNamara (HPM), but ended up finding
a niche for herself at another firm. “Despite my
pharmaceutical knowledge, I became involved one
step back, working with chemical companies on
due-diligence issues and transactional reviews,”
McColl said. “I was involved with new drug
development, but not on the pharmaceutical side.”
Nine years later, in 1989, McColl received a
phone call from HPM. She was offered a position
and has been there ever since. It’s been a perfect
match. “[Hyman, Phelps & McNamara] is the
longest-standing non-European member of the
European Food Law Association,” she told The Suit.
The firm has a vast network of resources at its disposal
to supplement its combined knowledge. Working on
sometimes complex or novel scientific regulatory issues,
McColl and others work collaboratively with physicians
and consultants who provide targeted medical or
scientific expertise. Their clients may be looking to
market their products, source ingredients or materials,
or hold clinical trials. To its
advantage, HPM has long-
standing relationships
with regulatory counsels in
many foreign jurisdictions,
including the European
Union, Asia, Canada, Mexico,
South America and Australia.
In the field of food and drug regulation, new challenges
are always arising. One of the emerging issues McColl
has to grapple with is the increasing problem with
“internet chatter about a product, bloggers talking
about a product,” she said. In addition, she thinks a
major issue facing the U.S. pharmaceutical industry
is the concept of exclusivity.“Once a food additive is
approved, anyone who meets certain qualifications
can sell it,” she explained. “[In the U.S.,] you have
exclusivity on the drug side; there is exclusivity before
generic use. But you don’t have it on the food side, like
in the United Kingdom. Exclusivity is an incentive [for a
company] to research and develop a new food additive.”
Diane McColl approaches her work holistically,
especially when negotiating tricky food regulatory
issues. She envisions “a forum to encourage regulatory
decision-making which involves a free exchange
of ideas based on sound science.” Elected to the
U.S.Pharmacopia’s Food Ingredients Expert Committee,
which sets standards for the purity of food ingredients,
she now has the opportunity to affect broader
public policy and make even more of a difference.
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 BRINGING OUR DATA THE LAST MILE
CLEANER AND FASTER
by Gary Stevens
Rod Peery of Technetix Inc. is an innovator,
producing unique new technology in the field of
telecommunications. His client list includes some
of the heaviest hitters in the industry: Comcast,
Time Warner Cable, and Cox Communications,
among others. Peery mainly deals with a widely
recurring problem in telecommunication¬:
excessive noise in the upstream bandwidth. To
the end-user, that means reduced data speeds .
Peery’s career took a dramatic turn when he met
Paul Broadhurst. He’d enjoyed a successful career
up to that point, ; he was in charge of European sales
and operations for C-Cor, a technology company
. Broadhurst came to him with new ideas about
a technology that could improve the process of
telecommunications and he felt the USA was a good
fit. Note- Paul founded Technetix in 1990- I started
and opened the business in the usa in 2007- the
technology was already formed- I brought it to the USA.
Peery took a leap of faith, and formed Technetix,
INC the North American arm of the Technetix Group.
“We introducedIngress safe to the US cable operators
to improve noise in the upstream bandwidth which in
effect improves true data speed coming back from the
cable modem,” Peery explained. “Upstream, from the a
house to the cable network, a lot of noise is introduced.
We build a component that is passive-based, that helps
reduce that noise.” He added, “It helps increases
the data through-put speed. Cable companies
spend millions of dollars battling noise reduction
and our product helps them reduce these costs.
The firm’s focus is unique. “Instead of taking on
huge projects, like Cisco and Motorola,” he said. “We
look for niches—product problems that need to be
addressed.” In addition, he said, “In the US our focus is
on the large players; in Europe, we listen more to small-
to-medium sized companies. They’re more willing
to take risk, so we can prove out new technology.”
Technetix is on the cutting edge of telecommunications
technology. Peery said, “It is key to have companies like
Technetix. We have patented a product that addresses
the problem of noise in the upstream or the new problem
we are working on in MOCA of isolation problems in
the MOCA frequency” We feel MOCA will become a
very popular in-home networking option for in home
DVR and improved gaming experience and allows for
true wire speeds in any room with a COAX connection
– which is most rooms in a home. He described the
coaxial infrastructure in the home which underlies
our cable television infrastructure is currently the
subject of a collaborative effort, MOCA (Multi-media
over Coaxial Alliance); even Time Warner is committed
to using it in addition to Verizon. “we are in the
process of introducing a new patented product which
is designed to enhance the effectiveness of MOCA,” he
said. “Every home has a coaxial connection, for devices
like TVs with digital set tops, and cable modems so
everyone can use this infrastructure and our product
enhances the experience of using MOCA in the home .”
As far as entrepreneurship in general and its role
in technological advancement, Peery posits that “large
companies wait to see where the market is. They
want to see if a company’s technology has proven
market potential, and then they make an acquisition.
But sometimes that backfires. Interesting ideas get
swamped In the wasteland of a large corporation.”
Small entrepreneurial ventures, like the ones he
works for in Europe, take more chances on new ideas,
which can lead to better returns in the long run.
Over the years, Peery has faced immense
challenges in building Technetix. He started the US
company with Broadhurst in July of 2007. In 2008,
the financial tsunami hit. “In a risk-averse climate,
we had to defend our product more strongly, which
made us stronger,” he said. “In Europe, our products
were more easily accepted due to the long usage and
history of Technetix in Europe but we were a complete
unknown in the USA.” And in recent months Technetix
has turned the corner, showing a profit for the first
time. His advice to anyone seeking to create their own
business? “Err on the side of being aggressive. Go
the extra mile to make it happen. Just do it. Deal
with problems as they arise,” Peery said. “If you
think too much, then you will become tentative.”
And those words speak volumes about an enterprise
that has flourished in an adverse economic climate.
From Rigs to Riches
Tom Brookey’s Path to
deepest wells in the world—and they were using their
own drilling rigs,” said Brookey. “It was a hands-on
learning experience. I got to see the biggest rigs in
Oil Drilling Innovation the world and work on the most challenging wells.”

After finishing at Exxon and taking a few other jobs

by Daniel Horowitz
Tom Brookey was only a teenager when he got his
start in the oil industry, and it all began with a wedding
and a rig. When he was fifteen, Brookey’s widowed
grandmother married entrepreneur R.B. Perry, owner
of the Perry Drilling Company. “After the marriage,
every chance I got, I got off the tractor and went to
the rig, where Terry let me learn the drilling business
from his point of view,” said Brookey. “He was a very
interesting man and a real high-moral guy, and taught
me to do business in a moral way.” From his mentor,
Brookey learned some valuable lessons about the
business. “He taught me that quality work always pays
off, and will allow you stay in business for many years.”
That advice has certainly stood the test of time.
Today, Brookey is the president and owner of MASI
Technologies, based in Edmond, Oklahoma. His company
uses cutting-edge technology to make oil drilling more
efficient by saving time, cutting losses, and reducing risk.
His path to success shows a knack for responding
creatively to life’s curveballs. Brookey enrolled
in junior college while continuing to work; then,
because of the oil crisis, he was unable to find a job
on the oil rig. Instead, he made a deal with a supply
company to furnish pipe lines for irrigation wells. “I
got a trencher and a truck, and I would dig trenches
and put in pipe lines for the irrigation wells, which
got me interested in hydraulics,” said Brookey.
in the field, Brookey started MASI Technologies, which
provides specialty drilling fluid solutions to the oil
and gas markets using aphron technology. In layman’s
terms, drilling fluids are synthetic liquids that are
essential to the oil drilling process; they cool the drill,
keep debris to a minimum, and prevent natural fluids
from leaking into wells. MASI specializes in drilling
fluids containing aphrons—microscopic bubbles
with a nitrogen core—which make the drilling more
effective. The bubbles form organically and are
biodegradable, so they make Brookey’s product a
greener alternative to less sophisticated drilling fluids.
The path wasn’t easy, but Brookey was able to use his
experience and education to succeed independently
in the industry he fell in love with years ago. Now
a successful entrepreneur, Brookey owes much of
his success to advice from his father. “My father
always told me to learn all you can from others,
without just copying them,” said Brookey. “He’d
tell me that what you do should come from your
own imagination. And that’s exactly what I did.”

After a brief stint in the Army during the draft,

Brookey revived his newfound interest and enrolled as
a full-time student at Texas Tech University to study
civil engineering. But Brookey didn’t finish his degree;
instead, he took an opportunity to work at Humble Oil
and Refining Company, which later consolidated with
Standard Oil to form Exxon. “During all that time, I never
lost my love of drilling. I had some friends in the oil
business who convinced me to interview with Humble
Oil,” said Brookey. “After a few months, Humble called
and offered me a job in West Texas working on the rigs.
I couldn’t turn that down, so I left school to work at
Humble, with the idea that I would come back and finish
my education later, which I did… just not back at school.”

Brookey’s career at Exxon confirmed his decision to

make a career in the drilling industry, which would
culminate in his creation of MASI Technologies. MASI uses innovative technology to engineer
“The thing that was so attractive was that they were safe, efficient drilling fluids.
drilling wells in West Texas—which were some of the

2010 DECEMBER THE SUIT 49

 REUSING WASTE
WISELY
by Gary Stevens
Mark Armstrong, CEO of Lewis Clark Recyclers, Inc., is truly
a pioneer in the rational processing of our waste materials.
Located on Idaho’s original capitol site in downtown
Lewiston, LCRI’s processing facility occupies three-quarters
of a city block where the old original structure stood, safely
accommodating the steady flow of small and large commercial
trucks which bring materials to the facility—the rotation of
inventory—and the shipping out of secondary commodities.
So what is the difference between LCRI’s services and the
rest of the industry? “We put a container on the premises,
maybe in an alley, and educate staff on how to change behavior
so as to minimize costs,” Armstrong said in his interview with
The Suit Magazine. “Our services save you twice as much
as we charge you. We can bring the disposal costs from
the typical $70 per yard down to as low as $5 per yard.”
The purpose of LCRI is the development and
administration of waste reduction through source
separation. Its mechanical resources are designed to
service commercial and industrial disposal diversion
activities, along with the timely collection and processing
of the growing volumes of various secondary materials
recycled as a result of the programs. LCRI puts recyclables
to reuse in secondary commodities which they package.
It has not been an easy path for Armstrong, he has
had to forge a role for himself as a sole proprietor and
entrepreneur. “Since the 1950’s there have been buy-back
centers; instead, I decided to provide a different service by
going to the regional businesses in order to set up collection
programs.” But he was competing with established
companies, and had to learn the rules of the game.
“I had to understand how the various players in the
industry worked. I worked with their rented equipment
and used their materials, so they wouldn’t shut me down.
They were more into straight garbage hauling, but I
needed to generate dollars, and needed their camaraderie.
Some take a while to realize that I’m not going away.”
Armstrong’s creative thinking and dogged work ethic has
enabled LCRI to thrive in a
tough business. He has
added other services to the
menu, such as shredding
and baggage systems for
recycled materials.
When asked about the economic downturn, Armstrong
says that “as a result of preparation we did while as others
went out of business, we took over the jobs that became
available.” That foresight has served Armstrong well. “I saw
as early as 2007 that China, Singapore and Europe were
seeing backlogs in inventory,” he added. “So I restructured
our operating budget, reduced payroll costs, refinanced
creatively, and strengthened buy/sell arrangements
with buyers of our secondary commodity markets.”
“I have always seen the need for community-based
programs in addition to schools and businesses,” he said.
LCRI’s collection routes operate around the clock, seven
days a week, accounting for over 200 tons of materials
being diverted daily from disposal and processed for
reuse in secondary applications. The number of regional
households, businesses and individuals satisfied by
LCRI’s services increases daily. “We even extend our
services to industrial facilities in Illinois, Texas and
Nevada, which ship materials by truck to our facility.”
An awareness of the needs of the community has always
been important to Armstrong. “[LCRI] offers our services to
several non-profits on a pro-bono basis,” he said. A self-
made businessman, Armstrong began working at the age of
14, getting his GED at the age of 30. His pragmatism and
basic values are reflected in his opinions about the recent
health care bill. “It’s way too early to tell. It will be another
cost, another tax. But if it makes our country a better place
and a better place for our children, it will be good.” He said. .
Since 1990, LCRI has been recognized with several
prestigious awards for the innovative and sustained
efforts that have made the company such a success,
including those presented by the State of Idaho
Governors Office and the Idaho Dept. of Commerce.
Armstrong has built a company that answers an important
need in today’s world. LCRI is educating people who run
commercial and industrial facilities on how to minimize
their waste, and he is processing that waste in an efficient
manner, reusing as much as possible in the production
of secondary commodities. And most importantly to
every government agency, business or
individual that LCRI services, everything
is accomplished at a greatly
reduced cost. A winning formula.
 iStockphoto©Marina Zlochin

2010 DECEMBER THE SUIT 51


Green living may be in vogue these days, but Robert
Goodwins got his start in the filed before it was
trendy. He started selling green products fifteen years
ago, and today he’s the owner and operator of GoGlo
Home Products, which specializes in natural cleaning
products. He knows that some environmentally
friendly products have garnered a poor reputation
amongst consumers on what’s efficient and what is not.
GoGlo is a small distributor that sells biodegradable
cleaning products; its main goal is to make sure
they are environmentally friendly, effective, and
safe. GoGlo’s primary product, the Bio-Ox Oxygen
Cleaning Systems, “replace 96 percent of all
other cleaning products on the market,” explains
Goodwins. “It can virtually clean any surface, is safe
on any surface, and leaves no residues behind.”
Goodwins first got involved in the green products
industry when he was a teenager. In 1990, he came
across a product that was demonstrated at a home
show, which he later sold after using the product to
by Eric Daniels
To most people, it’s
difficult to find a link
between the fields
of medicine and law.
But Ned Robertson
is not most people.
Robertson is a partner with Aronberg Goldgehn,
one of Chicago’s oldest law firms. His legal practice
deals with everything from real estate to succession
planning to banking. What sets Robertson apart
is his dedication to helping his clients, and this
compassion was inspired by his father, a physician.
Robertson was only 14 when he lost his father, but
the physician’s legacy left an indelible impression
on the future attorney. “He served his patients in
a way that isn’t done today,” says Robertson. “He
used to make house calls, and I would go with him
and sit in the car while he went in to visit and care
for the patients. He would work long hours, and he
had this insatiable desire to benefit his patients. I
think that was the genesis of how I decided to help
people myself.” Robertson’s aversion to the sight
of blood prevented him from entering the medical
52 THE SUIT DECEMBER 2010
Going Green the
Right Way
by Mary Ann Vaccarello
successfully repair a table that his daughter damaged
with an iron. A year later, he began selling for that
product line, Orange Glo, in the Northwest. This was
before the renowned pitchman Bill May’s started airing
his line of infomercials; GoGlo’s was actually the first
company to come up with a precursor for OxiClean.
Goodwins strives to maintain an ethical business
model, even though other manufactures have been
devising ways to sell their own green products by
omitting listed ingredients on their labels. Goodwins
says that many popular companies don’t meet
the same criteria as GoGlo’s product line, since
they haven’t adhered to the same regulations.
A current proposal in the works at the Federal Trade
Commission will, Goodwins hopes, force these companies
to follow governmental guidelines to confirm that their
products are sustainable. Goodwins fully supports
the plan as his company continues to grow and make
products that work for consumers and the environment.
profession, and instead he decided to pursue a law
career, studying at Chicago-Kent College of Law.
There he worked hard, eschewing
extracurricular activities like moot court,
clubs and law review. Instead, Robertson
worked to earn the money to fund his studies.
Today, as a former chair of the Trust Law
Committee at the Chicago Bar Association and a
respected attorney in the windy city, Robertson’s
eloquence and technical expertise have earned him
eminence in his field. But it is the human element
of his work that remains his motivation. “In this
day and age I think very few people go out of their
way to thank their professionals,” he says. “So
when I get a compliment, I feel that it’s certainly
deserved. It’s the thing that really keeps me going.”
 by Eric Daniels
Leila Levan’s fierce entrepreneurial spirit was first
kindled when she was a young girl on her family’s
farm. During the 1970s, highway construction
forced her family to sell the land they’d been
working on for years. She recalls, “My father had
to go to work in a corporation, and he hated it.”
That’s why Levan decided to go into business for
herself. Today, she is the proud owner of her own
company: Quality Response Services Inc. It’s a printing
business that delivers quality products quickly,
with low overhead costs and friendly customer
service. On their website, www.qualityresponse.
com, the business lists the four values that guide
their business strategy: integrity, quality, respect,
and stewardship. The experts at
QRS commit to a high standard
of service, paying close
“I had a desire to
attention to detail and working
closely with clients to ensure
make a difference,
the quality of their product.
to employ people
Levan started her career by
earning a degree in international
and pursue
law, and then she went to work
for a privately owned national
excellence.”
printing company. There she
worked for nine years, where
- Leila Levan, owner
she gained the experience she
needed to start out on her
of QRS
own. “I had a desire to make a
difference, to employ people
and pursue excellence,” Levan told The Suit. “My
father told me to do what you love, and the money
will follow.” So, inspired by his words and the
lessons of her family history, that’s what she did.
The transition was made easier by the fact that
Levan had always provided reliable, professional
services to the clients she worked with. Those
customers remained loyal to her when she
started the company; they even paid for jobs
in advance, solving the cash-flow problem.
In an attempt to cater to a large portion of the
market, Quality Response provides laser printing
and mail services for all types of companies,
nation-wide. The projects are diverse—state
government retirement packages, annual benefits
packets for Fortune 500 companies, fast-food
menus and other franchise needs, on-demand
short-run prints of 100 to 5,000 copies—no job
is too big for the company to handle, and no job
is too small for the company to consider. The
success of the enterprise is evidenced by the fact
that the company will be completely debt-free by
the end of this year, despite tough economic times.
Levan knows the importance of staying flexible
and adjusting staff when necessary, since business
fluctuates all the time. “During the political season
it’s all hands on deck,” she said, but when demand
slackens, the company can
survive until the next boom.
On a broader scale, changes
in business trends nationwide
keep her on her toes. She notes,
“both the economy and going
green have had an impact. It
used to be that a couple of
million pieces of paper went out
each month, but now services
are more digital and 75 percent
of people want e-mail invoices.”
Levan’s company is still
growing despite these
challenges, and she has strong
opinions on what lawmakers
can do to help companies like hers. “I hope that
government doesn’t tie the hands of small business
owners in the future,” she said. “There are no
more manufacturing jobs, and large corporations
are down-sizing.” With regard to the health
care bill, she reflects, “in the short term, there’s
uncertainty. Insurance disclaimers and coverage
may change, and investors may be more nervous.
But the long-term effects may be positive.”
Levan is practical about her business, but she’s
also optimistic. She’s come a long way since her
days racing horses on the family farm, and she’s
sure to find more success ahead for herself and
her employees at Quality Response Services Inc.
2010 DECEMBER THE SUIT 53
 gives off vapors when a fire is ignited. It is all-weather
resistant and does not react to the environment or execute
harsh chemicals that can harm it. As well, it surpasses
other fire-rated materials such as plywood or gypsum.

One of the videos on IBTGF’s website demonstrates

how flameretardant Pyrotite really is. In the video,
by Mary Ann Vaccarello firemen on the scene lit two shacks – one was made
with LP Flameblock and the other one was not. The
flames engulfed the untreated OSB structure within
Water in the walls no longer means that a
minutes, but the flames barely did so to the treated one.
homeowner may have a mold problem on his/
her hands, but, rather, a different kind of firewall.
Pyrotite can be used in any part of a home,
including roof decks and parting walls that divide
International Barrier Technology, Inc. (IBTGF), a
multifamily residential buildings, and it can be used
publicly traded company based in Louisiana, has
in portable classrooms, office trailers, and other
developed a fire-rate product called Pyrotite – a strong
types of construction.It provides the same strength
material that is replacing old fire-safe technologies.
required in the building of stable structures and
can be added to stucco, brick, and stone. It comes
According to IBTGF President and CEO Dr. Mike
in arrays of thickness, trimmings and sidings. It’s
Huddy, the chemical formulation for this technology
easier for builders to handle and cut with less waste
was first developed in Norway during the 1870’s.
than with regular wood or cement, and it has more
During these past 20 years of implementing
durability as it does not fall to the usual wear and
improvements, IBTGF has perfected this new process
tear, nor is it susceptible to damage from termites.
technology to create a fire-safe alternative for private
homeowners and residential builders. The process is
The current economic downturn has given IBTGF
trademarked by Flamblock and sold through MuleHide
ample time to brainstorm on how to better expand
Products, Inc., and by Louisiana Pacific Corporation
its products and create time-saving manufactured
(since January 2009) under LP Building Products.
goods. Dr. Huddyasserts that, despite prevailing
economic conditions,this small company has increased
By integrating cement technology with wood
its business and, he believes, is gaining in market
technology, IBTGF has created a fire-rated wood
shares. He further advises that building owners should
panel that increases people’s safety dramatically and
“think beyond what they’re doing now” and be more
deters the chances of completely losing one’s home.
expansive in selecting the products they’re now using.
“There’s been materials that have been around
historically that people have used,” explained Dr.
Huddy, “but now, [we have] a different way to
build a firewall. What we do is basically bring the
strength and ease of use of wood together with
the fire-resistance of non-combustible cement.”

Toxin-free and environmentally friendly, Pyrotite is a

mixture of magnesium oxide, fiberglass and water that

PROTECTING PEOPLE AND PROPERTY FROM FIRE

iStockphoto © Selahattin BAYRAM

 Going Green with Synthetic Motor Oil
by Gary Stevens
With grit and determination, William Durand, owner and
founder of SEL/Amsoil Academy, has used his farm-raised
backbone to carve out a solid career providing affordable
synthetic motor oil to consumers across the country.
His SEL/Amsoil enterprise is affiliated with Amsoil
Inc., the brainchild of Albert J. Amatuzzio, whom Durand
describes as a close friend and father figure. Amatuzzio
had the foresight to see the potential benefits of synthetic
lubricants early on. He created the company, then called
Amzoil, to produce and market the product. But Pennzoil,
looking out for the proprietary use of the letter ‘Z,’
challenged the company’s use of the name. Amatuzzio was
forced to change the spelling, but the publicity he received
from the battle put his company on the map, and today the
company he founded has members all over the United States.
Durand’s affiliate alone has over 200,000 members, who
buy and sell Amsoil synthetic lubricant products directly.
Durand began as a member of the company back in
1974, and has been working with Amsoil ever since. “We
immediately got relocated to Alabama,” he recalls, “and
we started a group there. That just took off like a house
on fire; my own company got started in April of 1976,
and by December we already had 450 members in the
organization.” He later relocated to the Lake Superior
area, where his original company name—Southeastern
Leaders—didn’t fly. So he shortened it to SEL/Amsoil, has
since watched his company grow in leaps and bounds.
Durand loves working with Amsoil because it’s a multi-level
marketing organization with integrity. Individuals who join
the company begin as members, he explains. “Every time you
make a purchase as a member, you get commission credits.
Then, if you achieve 3000 commission credits a month—
which is maybe $4000 in wholesale products—that makes
you a direct dealer. When you do that three months in a row,
you become a direct jobber, at which point you can move up
different levels.” As a veteran Amsoil worker, Durand is one
of only two people worldwide who has achieved a seven-star
status, the highest possible ranking for Amsoil employees.
Durand’s direct, common-sense approach to business dates
back to his early days. Raised on a farm in Wisconsin, Durand
wanted to see the world, and as part of the Air Force ROTC he
visited over 60 countries. He secured command positions in
Texas, Europe, the Pentagon, and Vietnam, where he earned
a bronze star. Later, he taught at universities in Wisconsin,
Minnesota and Alabama. “I got to meet the Southern folks,
so when I retired [from the military], luck and circumstance
led me to start SEL/Amsoil with my wife Donna.”
Bill and his wife were able to start off on the right foot
because of the flexibility of the job. “Amsoil can be done right
from home,” he told The Suit. “The wife had six kids, and she
wanted to do something at home so she could watch them.
With Amsoil, we could do that.” But business expanded
quickly. “We went from the kitchen table to the basement
to another office to another floor, and we just kept adding.
Now our home is a really nice office with an elevator.”
They have also recently started a new endeavor: a SEL/
Amsoil museum. As Durand explains, when you have a
good thing, you want to spread the word. “We have 320
acres of recreational space, and we’ve got really good
contractors working there,” he said. “It doesn’t come
cheap, but we wanted to do more for our organization
than anyone else was doing for their organization.”
Durand is enthusiastic about his work because he knows
that his product is first-rate. “If you want a good tomato
sauce, start with good tomatos, and then [economies
of] scale will lower your costs,” he explained. “The fuel
savings [brought about] by using our synthetic oil means
that it more than covers any added cost. Big truckers
even call it ‘free oil’ because it improves performance so
much. Using special Amsoil filters, which keep the oil
clean; truckers get as much as 400,000 to 500,000 miles
on an oil change. It is pure. And it’s easy to deliver, not
requiring a truck to dump oil into twenty different lines.”
And the environmental benefits are also important. “Being
synthetic, it helps to keep water and the ground clean. You don’t
have to fight wars over it,” Durand said. “And the longevity
[as compared to] regular oil means there is less waste.”
Durand and his wife know that the work they’re doing
is good for the country as a whole. Considering the
environmental benefits of the product and the freedom
of autonomy for employees, he says, “it’s good for
America. It keeps it strong and independent and free.”
 Providing Innovative
Metallurgy Engineering
by Eric Daniels
In an era of evolving technology, when low-footprint
business is at a premium and everything needs to be
paperless, wireless, waste-free and hassle-free, fewer
people than ever are specializing in raw materials.
But when NASA needs to build a booster rocket
using the right types of metal, or when a group of
college students needs an advisor to help them create
a solar car that can ride for 2000 miles on nothing
but sunlight, or when a factory machine breaks down
due to insufficient materials, metallurgy consultant
Wayne Reitz has the expertise to make things work.
Reitz is an independent contractor for his business,
Reitz Metallurgy [ w w w . r e i t
zmetallurgy.com]
The company offers several
services to its clients,
including metallurgy
training, failure analysis,
software modeling, and
corrosion investigation.
The Suit wanted to know
what motivated Reitz to
work with metal in the first
place; he told us that in fact,
he had originally studied
nuclear engineering. But
he realized that a career in
the field was not ideal for
him. “I did a job interview
when I was still getting
my bachelor’s degree,” he
recalls. But once he learned more about the position, a
frightening realization made him change his mind. “I
found out that I could end up like Homer Simpson, sitting
at the control panels all day,” he joked. Instead, Reitz
finished his studies and then embarked on a journey
with his wife. “I went into the Peace Corps for two
years, and after being in the desert for so long, I didn’t
consider myself a nuclear engineer anymore!” he said.
Reitz decided to go back to school with a different focus.
“I had to think about what interests I had,” he said. “I
thought long and hard, and there was one undergraduate
course I had taken on corrosion, and I remember
56 THE SUIT DECEMBER 2010
thinking how remarkable and interesting it was.”
Reitz earned a doctorate in Mechanical Engineering and
went into the metal industry; today, his independent
company has been in business for 10 years. Based in
Fargo, N.D., Reitz Metallurgy has worked with clients
all over the country, from Florida to Washington. The
recession has resulted in some loss of income for the
small business, but Reitz has taken advantage of the
downtime to focus on marketing. He’s created and
improved a website to make his services available to a
wider audience, on top of existing ads in magazines and
on the radio. He has also invested in Google adware,
and he continues to gain customers through word-of-
mouth as satisfied clients tell others about his services.
Most of Reitz’s work has been in failure analysis.
When big machines fall
apart—often costing
manufacturers millions of
dollars—Reitz can provide
the expertise to make sure
the problem is resolved.
He explained that many
companies tend to cut
corners when purchasing
their material, focusing
more on price than quality
and attempting to fix
equipment on their own. In
a weakening economy, that
mistake becomes more
common, and things break
down. The end result is
mechanical failure and even
lawsuits; in those situations, Reitz can assist in proving
claims against insurance companies. He has also done
work for NASA; they needed to build some components
of a booster rocket using non-spark coding. That means
it was up to Reitz to determine which types of metals
would fit the design without creating dangerous sparks.
Metallurgy is a niche field with a narrow focus, but
Reitz has seen its importance firsthand. For every
250,000 mechanical engineers, there are only 1000
metallurgists who understand that the compounds
of metal create a whole world of a difference in
productivity. Mechanical engineers can only go so far,
but Reitz believes that many companies should look
for employees who specialize in metallurgy. “I think
there would be fewer problems that way,” he said.
“You’d have to pay somebody a salary and benefits,
and sometimes companies look at the short-term
investment as non-productive, but the return on that
investment I think would be quite large because you’d
have somebody on staff to deal with these problems.
They come up routinely.” If someone within each
company had some expertise regarding the mechanics
of metal, many costly breakdowns could be prevented.
To that end, Reitz makes an effort to spread the
knowledge he has gained over the years by working
part-time as a college faculty member. His courses
in Mechanical Engineering at North Dakota State
University keep him in touch with the next generation
of engineers. Through the university, Reitz was
involved in an exciting engineering project; he served
as a faculty advisor for a team of students competing
in the American Solar Challenge. The race requires
competitors to design and build a solar-powered
car, and its course runs through several cities along
Route 66. Reitz worked with a group of industrious
undergraduates. “I told the students it was their
car, their race, and this was the only time they were
allowed to tell me what to do.” The team accomplished
their goal—a 2000-mile journey in under 10 days—
with limited resources. “Our car was a low-end car.
The rule of thumb is the lightest car wins, but since
we were a young team, we had to use donations. So
the brakes that we had to use came off a forklift,”
he recalls with a laugh. Despite the extra weight,
the team’s car made it all the way from Chicago
to Los Angeles using a solar panel that generated
about the same level of energy as a hair-dryer.
These days, Reitz is working on marketing his business
while anticipating an economic recovery. As long as
companies across the country are using metal in their
manufacturing, Reitz will be on hand for training and
consulting. As a specialist, he’s one of few who can deliver
the focused advice and analysis that his clients need.
2010 DECEMBER THE SUIT 57
 Drilling for Success
Exterra Delivers Water in Abundance
By Gary Stevens
Debra Magnuson’s work is not for the faint-of-
heart. She’s the owner of Exterra Drilling Company,
and it’s a tough business that she’s grown to love.
Together, she and her husband deliver the earth’s
most vital resource: water. The couple operates
two drills, and she provides water for clients on a
planned schedule. But emergencies come up too, and
Magnuson is always ready. “I’ve gone out in the middle
of the night with a flashlight, looking for the source
of a water problem,” Magnuson said with a chuckle.
That is no surprise. Magnuson has American
spunk that sees her through the rough-and-tumble
road of running a small business. When she opted
to start a company, it was a surreal experience. “I
went into the bank and they laughed,” she quips.
Undaunted, she found a private investor, and ever
since the business has spread by word of mouth;
Exterra’s fantastic customer service consistently earns
good references. Magnuson is a businesswoman
with a heart, and she sometimes provides free
labor to people who can’t afford to pay for it.
Her background prepared her well, instilling strong
discipline, common sense, and a healthy team spirit.
Magnuson never was a shrinking violet; at the tender
age of eighteen she joined the Marines, working at the
Allour Massage Interclinics: The Healing Touch
by Catherine Park
In these tough economic times, as bills pile up
and bank accounts dwindle, the extra stress can be
hard to handle. But entrepreneur Deborah Allour
knows how important it is to maintain physical and
mental well-being, and she doesn’t underestimate
the power of a healing touch. As President and
CEO of Allour Massage Interclinics, she’s in the
business of keeping her community well-balanced.
Allour, who founded her business in the hopes of
being able to help others, believes massage therapy
is beneficial for adults and children because it
relieves physical, mental, and emotional stress.
In the last 13 years, the overall number of people
receiving massages has increased by 2.5 percent,
Allour said. Despite economic downturn—or perhaps
because of it—clients seek massage therapy as a
way to ease the tension. It’s not only for clients
who are injured or suffering from age-related pain,
she explained. It’s beneficial for people of all ages.
“I live with my daughter and two small grandchildren—a
Camp Lejune base in North Carolina. “I had a ball!”
she remembers. Believe it or not, she was involved
with a grooming class on her base, bringing her unique
charm—complete with “green eye shadow and red
lipstick: Camp Lejune colors!”—to life on the base.
She’s seen a lot, and today Magnuson is blunt in
her assessment of modern life. “I enjoy working, but
I don’t see that work ethic today.” She is critical of
the administration, saying “it’s a scary deal running
a small business with the way the country’s being
run.” She is opposed to the recent health care bill and
worried about increased costs to the small business
owners, citing bonds for unemployment insurance
and employers’ taxes. “It scares the hell out of me. If
government is gonna force businesses, it’s going to put
people out of business,” Magnuson said. She expresses
a general frustration with the health care bill and with
health care in the United States. “One sick individual
and they raise the rates,” she said. Magnuson
believes instead in eliminating frivolous lawsuits,
which she believes contributes to the high health care
insurance costs. Her words of advice: “You get outta
life what you put into it. I went into everything as an
adventure, learning and getting as much as I could
out of every experience. And I have fun doing it.”
two and a five year old—who all love to get massages
from me,” said Allour. “It does keep them in balance.”
To cater to a diverse clientele, the clinic offers plenty of
massage options to fit every personal preference, from
simple stress relief to deep tissue therapy. “People think
it’s such a robotic thing,” says Allour, but she is working
to change that perception. “Each client is very individual,
and each client needs a very individual massage.”
To survive as a small business, Allour keeps it local. Her
business thrives on lasting relationships, so there’s no
need for her to advertise outside of her own community.
Her loyal clientele of 40 to 45 regulars, some of whom
have followed her since she graduated from therapy
school, make up the foundation of her company.
“I was able to get these people to trust me so
well that they go to their neighbors, business
associates, and family members,” said Allour. “All
of them say, ‘You gotta go see Deb, she’s gonna
fix you up and you’ll never have this problem!’”
2010 DECEMBER THE SUIT 59
 Point-of-Care Diagnosis
A New Weapon in the Fight Against HIV
By Gary Stevens

“People [with HIV] can live fairly healthy and normal
lives, if treated, but obviously they can’t get treatment
if they don’t know they’re HIV positive,” said Larry
Siebert, CEO of Chembio Diagnostic Systems, Inc.
It’s been estimated that at least 20% of the people
in the US who are HIV positive are not aware that
they are infected. Chembio is working to solve that
problem. The company develops, manufactures,
licenses and markets point-of-care diagnostic
tests and technology for the detection of infectious
diseases. With POC (Proof of Concept, i.e., verifiable)
technology, people can take a diagnostic test and
learn their HIV status in one hospital visit, and they
can be immediately referred to treatment options.
single disease. “DPP® has certain benefits and features
that allow certain kinds of point-of-care tests to be
developed that either cannot be, or cannot nearly
as effectively be, developed using lateral flow and
other platforms,” Seibert explained. “What exists
today in the market, including the tests that we have
in the US, are tests that are based on lateral flow
technology. All the action occurs on one strip,” he said.
“When you’re dealing with a more viscous sample,
like oral fluid, it’s better to separately provide
for the reaction of the sample with the targeted
analyte as compared with a lateral flow test
where the colored indicator is combined with the
sample before it even reaches the targeted analyte.

In a timely development, President Obama has unveiled “With DPP®,” he offered, “you tend to have better
a new strategy in the fight against HIV and AIDS. The sensitivity – meaning that you have a better chance
goal is to increase the proportion of people who are to pick up weak positives, but you also have better
aware of their condition from 79% to 90% by 2015. specificity, meaning you don’t have nonspecific
binding, which can show a false positive result.”
“You could almost say that President Obama and
his Office of National AIDS Policy have adopted the Two of Chembio’s DPP® tests for screening with oral
strategy of companies [like Chembio] that are in the fluid and for confirmation of HIV have already been
point-of-care rapid detection HIV business,” he said. approved in Brazil, and the oral fluid HIV screening
test will be submitted to the FDA in 2011. Chembio’s
At the core of Chembio’s pipeline of new diagnostic lateral flow HIV tests are already FDA approved and
tests is their patented Dual Path Platform sold under the brand of Alere Inc., a leading POC
technology, or DPP®, diagnostics company. Alere distributes the product
which allows for the to hospitals, physicians, clinics, and public health
development of organizations, both nationally and internationally.
m u l t i p l e x
tests for multiple The applications of DPP® are wide-ranging. Chembio’s
diseases, or for HIV tests, which screen for antibodies in whole blood or
different stages in oral fluid, are less labor intensive than other testing
or aspects of a options. They require no special equipment, are easy to

“With DPP® you tend to have better sensitivity,

meaning that you have a better chance to pick
up weak positives, but you also have better
specificity, meaning you don’t have nonspecific
binding, which can show a false positive
result.”
- Larry Siebert, CEO of Chembio
use and read, and need only a minimal sample volume.
“Our lateral flow HIV tests are basically the same
technology, for all intents and purposes, as the home
pregnancy test. It’s that simple; DPP® has improved
performance over lateral flow through provision
of an intermediate incubation step,” Siebert said.
Today, only one oral HIV test, Oraquick, has been
approved in the US.“The CDC [Center for Disease
Control] conducted a study in Mozambique earlier
this year. They compared our product to the Oraquick
product as well as to two of the leading blood tests
used throughout the world,” he said. “Our test
performed the best of the four. [It] performed with
specificity of 100% and the sensitivity of 99.8%.”
Chembio is also conducting clinical trials for a point-of
caretest for syphilis in the US. Currently, syphilis tests
are administered, sent out, screened and, if initially
positive, tested again to
confirm the results.
That process can
take days or weeks.
The amount of
time necessary to
confirm a diagnosis
can deter people
from receiving
treatment for
syphilis, though
antibiotics can
effectively cure
the infection.
“With our DPP®
Syphilis Screen and
Confirm,” Siebert
affirmed, “you can
screen and confirm
a case of syphilis with
one single POC testing
device in 15 minutes.”
In an exciting development, the company has entered
into a million dollar development contract with the CDC
to create an immune status influenza test, which enables
public health officials to locate areas of exposure in
the US and the different strains active in those areas.
“It’s not a test to see if somebody has the virus or is
sick. It’s simply to see what strains they’ve been exposed
to, to help understand what strains are traveling
to what regions of the country,” Siebert explained.
There is also work in its early development stage
for an oral fluid test for Hepatitis C. Chembio’s
DPP® technology even offers potential veterinary
applications, including production and domestic
animals. Other potential applications include food
safety, environmental screening, bioterrorism,
forensics, agriculture and industry. As the possibilities
for its products grow, so does Chembio’s success.
Areas of the world in which Chembio has worked
include the US, Africa, Mexico and Brazil. A 2004
collaboration with Brazil led to four more royalty
and licensing agreements entered into in 2008, under
which technology developed by Chembio will become
available for use in Brazil. Brazil will then have the
ability to manufacture its own products to combat
HIV and other infectious diseases. As mentioned
above, two of these products are now approved in
Brazil. Additional agreements are under discussion.
One of the biggest challenges facing the U.S.is making
the HIV test available over-the-counter. “Because of this
continuing segment of our population that is not aware
of its status, many key opinion leaders in public health,
such as Dr. Bernard Branson at the CDC,[aresupporting
attempts to have
these testsbecome
available for over-
the-counter sale to
consumers, provided
[that] appropriate
regulatory approvals
and conditions are
taken into account,”
Siebert said.
“That’s something
we’re working on.”
The company
originally started
with 20 workers and
has grown to nearly
120 employees. Since
the FDA began to
approve Chembio’s
products, business
has swelled. “We feel we
have a strong market position now. We’re close to 18-
20% market share,” said Siebert.
With revenues growing at 30% per year, DPP®
technology is driving the company’s growth, opening
more opportunities for new collaborations. “One of
the challenges that we have now is that people don’t
know us because our products are not being marketed
in the U.S. under our brand – yet,” Siebert emphasized.
The newly approved diagnostic testing products
will enter the market by the end of 2010 with the
trademarked Chembio brand and the DPP® mark. The
company’s participation in the World AIDS Conference
in Vienna, Austria, this past July and in a March for AIDS
Awareness in New York City, along with other forms of
outreach, is helping the brand become a household name.
2010 DECEMBER THE SUIT 61
Ampakines, a
Ground-Breaking
Development
Mark Varney, Ph.D.
By Lorenn Peer
Schizophrenia. Parkinson’s disease. Attention Deficit
HyperactivityDisorder (ADHD). Autism. Alzheimer’s
Disease. One thing they all have in common: all are
candidates for treatment with a groundbreaking new class
of drugs called Ampakines, now in clinical development.
Studies show that Ampakines have the potential
to effectively help overcome these psychiatric and
neurological disorders in ways unparalleled by
current drug therapies now available on the market.
Cortex Pharmaceuticals Inc., an emerging California-
based neuroscience company, has been focusing
on the development and future commercialization
of Ampakines since the mid-1990s. Discovered in
1993 at the University of California in Irvine, CA, by
Professor Gary Lynch, Ampakines are small molecules
that are synthesized in the lab and are designed to
be taken orally in the form of a pill. Once ingested,
they get absorbed into the blood and enter the brain.
“The brain is filled with connections – trillions
62 THE SUIT DECEMBER 2010
of connections,” says Mark Varney, Ph.D., CEO and
President of Cortex. “Ampakines work by enhancing the
communication between the connections in the brain. In
doing so, they are able to facilitate learning and memory,
and to overcome some of the chemical imbalances
that can occur in the brain with certain diseases.”
In patients with psychiatric disorders, such as
schizophrenia and ADHD, for example, certain
areas of the brain fail to function as they would
in mentally healthy individuals. Ampakines, Dr.
Varney says, “allow the brain to recruit these
malfunctioning areas and overcome these imbalances.”
The innovative aspect of Ampakine technology is the
mechanism by which it operates in the brain. Unlike
some anti-depressant drugs which modulate the
serotonin neurotransmitter, or drugs that are used to
treat Parkinson’s Disease, which modulate the dopamine
neurotransmitter, Ampakines modulate the glutamate
neurotransmitter system. Glutamate is, in fact, the most
widely used neurotransmitter within the brain and is
central to learning, memory and other cognitive tasks.
The innovators at Cortex consider Ampakines, as
a glutamate modulator, well-suited to treat diseases
involving cognitive deficits. They can also facilitate
the production of growth factors within the brain.
“These are proteins that our brains make, and they
actually are sort of nurturing agents to brain cells that
are not functioning very well; they also help stabilize
Cortex is not alone
when it comes to its
faith in the promise
of these revolutionary
drugs. The Michael J. Fox
Foundation, where Dr.
Frasier works, recently
awarded Cortex a grant.
memory formation,” said Mark Frasier, Ph.D., Associate
Director/Team Leader of Research Programs at the
Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research.
One particular protein brain-derived neurotrophic
factor (BDNF) is turning out to be a very important
player in neuroscience today, he explained, “and
Ampakines can facilitate the release of BDNF.
Based on animal data support, we found that when
brain cells are stressed from a certain insult to a
particular part of the brain, like during a stroke, or
with some of the peptides that exist in Alzheimer’s
Disease, BDNF may be able to rescue them.”
 Cortex is not alone when it comes to its faith
in the promise of these revolutionary drugs. The
Michael J. Fox Foundation, where Dr. Frasier works,
recently awarded Cortex a grant. The money will
be used to fund a year-long preclinical efficacy
study of Ampakines. The study involves inducing
pathology of Parkinson’s in mice and treating them
with Ampakine molecules, and then looking for the
drugs’ physical effects on the animals’ brain cells.
“If successful and everything goes as hypothesized,”
said Dr. Frasier, “[Ampakines] will provide what we would
call a ‘neuroprotective effect,’ whereby the compounds
will preserve the loss of particular brain cells that are
lost in Parkinson’s Disease – [in effect] protecting them.”
Unlike current drugs used to treat Parkinson’s
and which treat only the symptoms, Frasier
added, “Ampakines actually have the potential
to protect the brain cells from further damage
and death by increasing the neuroprotective
factors of the affected brain cells. That’s exciting!”
BDNF can also help stabilize immature neurons
that are seen in autism patients – Cortex’s most
recent area of interest. The company was recently
granted exclusive worldwide rights by the University
of California to develop a molecular combination of
Ampakines and metabotropic glutamate receptor
5 antagonists (mGluR5 antagonists) in order to
study their potential to treat Fragile X, the most
Drug
Discovery
Respiratory Disorders
Drug-induced Respiratory CX717
Depression
CX1942
Sleep Apnea CX1739
Neurology & Psychiatry Dirsorders
ADHD
CX1739
CX2076
Alzheimer’s Disease CXxxxx
Parkinson’s Disease CX1846
Low Impact Ampakine
common genetically proven cause of autism.
“Obviously, autistic children and adults have very
significant cognitive impairments,” stated Varney. “They
typically have lower IQs and low sociability.” Ampakines,
he explained, can improve sociability, emphasizing how
excited he is about the prospect of helping to facilitate
incorporating autistic people into mainstream society.
Of course, the road from animal labs to human testing
to FDA approval, and finally to pharmacy shelves, is
a long and arduous one. “We would not expect to be
on the market before 2014-15,” said Varney. “Part
of the problem is that we’re a small company, and
we haven’t as many resources as larger companies.”
Varney is devoted to guiding Cortex’s development
of this novel class of drugs. He believes Ampakines
will not only benefit people suffering from disease, but
will also have deeper implications for society at large.
“Consider Alzheimer’s, for example,” he offered. “The
Alzheimer’s Association reports that currently over five
million Americans suffer from the disease. It’s going to
be a tremendous burden on our healthcare system.”
Hefurther pointed out that not only does the disease
affect patients, but often family members who sacrifice
their own lives and jobs to care for their loved ones.
“Ampakines really have the potential to slow down
or to delay these people going into nursing homes,”
he added, “And if they can do that, it will have a
really huge effect.” Certainly,it’s a worthy endeavor.
Preclinical Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3
High Impact Ampakine
2010 DECEMBER THE SUIT 63
 Preventative
A Life Dedicated to

By Gary Stevens Rosenthal earned his medical degree at the University

of Buenos Aires in 1988, and then completed
Throughout the developing countries, Dr. fellowship programs in Internal Medicine and
Victor Rosenthal has devoted the past 20 years of Infectious Diseases from 1989 to 1992. Since 1989,
his life to reducing the incidence of health care he’s worked in hospitals, in which setting the suffering
acquired infections (HAI). He has even donated of patients and their families due to the fearful
60-to-70% of his yearly physician’s income to a consequences of HAI had a powerful impact on him.
foundation he created – the Foundation To Fight “I was struck by the fact [of finding] that HAI
Against Nosocomial Infections – in order to raise infection rates in Argentina are five times the standard
awareness and money for this laudable cause. for American hospitals. So I decided to shift from
At first, Rosenthal’s the area of infectious disease
concerns had fallen on diagnosis and treatment
deaf ears. “Back then, in
developing countries, HAI “Because infec- to the area of infection
control and prevention.”
was not part of the agenda,” Since 1993, Dr. Rosenthal
Rosenthal said in his interview
with The Suit. “As infection
tion control is a has worked with a group of
physicians editing the National
doctors in Argentina, we
worked as consultants, going
from hospital to hospital. At
global problem, Infection Control Guidelines at
the Infectious Diseases Society
of Argentina. They developed
my hospital, patients were
dramatically dying from HAI everyone is guidelines to reduce HAI,
but the guidelines were not
at an extremely high rate,” he
extremely hungry
implemented. “Regulations on
asserted. “I discovered lack of their own do not bring about
infection-control practices, changes in healthcare workers’
and I changed the process
and reduced the incidence to learn about behavior,”
Immediately,
he
he
realized.
began
of HAI and mortality.” to conduct surveillance of
He then made the decision
to find a systematic and
INICC.” device-associated infections
at hospitals in Buenos Aires;
standardized solution to the
HAI problem in all developing
countries of the world. He
-Victor Rosenthal those
central
infections

bloodstream
included
line-associated
infections,
analyzed extensive the data ventilator-associated
he collected on HAI rates and pneumonia, catheter-
infection-control practices. associated urinary tract
Simple practices, he realized, such as cleanliness infections, and surgical site infections.
protocols, needed to be structured, and compliance By 1998, he had helped create an innovative system.
with these practices needed to be monitored. “There are two components,” he said animatedly. “One is
In 2002, he formed the International Nosocomial Outcome Surveillance, to measure rates of HAI; the other
Infection Control Consortium (INICC), a non- is Process Surveillance, to measure compliance with
profit international research networkto enlist Infection Control Guidelines by health-care workers.”
hospitals and countries in the campaign. “Now, Rosenthal developed the guidelines, forms, manuals
because infection control is a global problem, and training programs as well as database and statistical
everyone is extremely hungry to learn about INICC,” software in order to facilitate the analysis of these data.
he said, though it’s been a long road, he added. By 1999, he had clinical proof that the implementation

64 THE SUIT DECEMBER 2010

 M easures
Helping Others
of his Outcome and Process Surveillance system had
produced significant improvement in patient safety,
ultimately reducing costs. Within a year, three hospitals
had implemented the system, with supportive results
that were published in peer-reviewed journals
and presented at international scientific meetings.
He underwent further training, graduating from a
program in Clinical Effectiveness sponsored jointly by
HarvardUniversity and the University of Buenos Aires in
1999-2000. Then Rosenthal had a further inspiration.
“Hospital Administrators want to
save money,” he said, and went to
work developing tools by which to measure
the cost-effectiveness of infection control. Two
years later, Rosenthal began receiving invitations
to present his model of measurements in
Colombia, Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Turkey and India.
“In all of these countries, healthcare workers
showed a willingness and eagerness to be trained in
my methodology,” he said. The Health Department
of Bogota, Colombia, and the Undersecretary
for Innovation and Quality in Mexico have
also requested his assistance and counseling.
This was the beginning of INICC. In the ensuing
years, theorganization’s training and research
activities began making waves around the world,
with hospitals from Brazil, Colombia, Peru, India and
Morocco joining the INICC. By 2005, the organization
further enhanced its international status with
the creation of an International Advisory Board.
In 2006, the INICC published its first multi-
centric study in the peer reviewed journal, Annals
of Internal Medicine. That exposure made INICC’s
system a world standard for measuring healthcare-
associated infection rates in developing countries.
By then, the breadth and diversity of participating
countries had proven no less than remarkable
as INICC members now included Croatia, the
Philippines, Pakistan, Kosovo and Macedonia.
In 2007, Rosenthal created the Foundation to Fight
Against Nosocomial Infections (FLIN) in order to
garner wider support for low-resource healthcare
facilities worldwide.“FLIN was set up to enhance
INICC’s scientific activities by raising funds,” he said.
Currently, Uruguay, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Lebanon,
iStockphoto © Andresr
Nigeria, Cuba, China, Panama, Tunisia, Venezuela,
Greece, Lithuania and Vietnam have also joined the
fight against HAI as members of INICC. As of last year,
hospitals of 39 countries worldwide have joined – 15
from Latin America (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia,
Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, El Salvador,
Guatemala, México, Panamá, Peru, Puerto Rico,
Venezuela, Uruguay); 13 from Asia (China, India, Jordan,
Lebanon, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Saudi Arabia,
Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam); 10
from Europe (Bulgaria, Check republic, Greece, Kosovo,
Lithuania, Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Turkey,
Ukraine); and 5 from Africa (Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria,
Sudan, Tunisia). In effect, the programs developed by
Rosenthal and the INICC have grown popular directly
because they work. Unfortunately, however, Rosenthal
admitted, “We have a lack of dollars, and therefore
a lack of professionals to [send out to hospitals] to
institute surveillance methods and train people.”
In the December 2010 issue of SHEA’s (Society For
Health Care Epidemiology of America) official peer
review journal, indexed in pubmed as, “Infection control
and hospital epidemiology,” INICC posits how it is
possible to significantly reduce the HAI rates by 54% and
mortality rates by 58% in 15 developing countries. INICC
now looks to apply this strategy in all 144 developing
countries worldwide, and not just in those 15 countries.
Dr. Victor Rosenthal is working aroundtheclock to see
his vision of lowered HAI and HAI-related mortality rates
a reality. Constantly speaking at international scientific
conferences around the globe and utilizing the INICC
network, he continues to advocate for patient safety.
The HAI crisis threatens hospitalized patients, more
so in developing countries, and it can be fought by
applying infection control guidelines, by monitoring
practices and procedures, and by providing performance
feedback to healthcare workers. The INICC offers an
effective and feasible model for the developing world,
but what hampers its work is lack of funding, which
factor remains a hindrance so long as it depends
mostly on people like Rosenthal, who, as a major donor
to FLIN, donates 60-to-70% of his personal income.
He needs help to fund his work, and he hopes that
more people around the world will donate to the cause
and help make his dream of patient safety a reality.
2010 DECEMBER THE SUIT 65
Cellular Wisdom
A Fantastic Journey
by Gary Stevens
Wearing a habit in a convent, then peering into
microscopes, doing neuroscience research in the halls of
academia, and, finally, having the freedom to write and
mentor others – becomes a journey enabled by insight
into using the human cell as a model for our individual/
social selves. Joan C. King, author of The Code of
Authentic Living – cellular wisdom,” is such a person.
“As Chair of the Department of Anatomy and Cellular
Biology for Tufts’ medical, dental and veterinary
schools,” she recalls, “I was [also] central director
of all research programs in human reproduction.”
She adds, “In dealing with faculty, I saw there
was so much struggle – for ‘success’. I thought,
who am I without titles and roles? I turned
to the body as a model [for] how to thrive.”
Offering people a rich and rewarding perspective
through her business, “Beyond Success,” King
explains, “[involves] coaching, training, mentoring,
and continuing education for advanced coaches.
My clients have to be ready to work. In each
meeting, we create a road-map for action.”
She has mentored twelve coaches in the last 2 ½ years,
using face-to-face and telephone meetings. “A client
typically sees me for eight two-hour sessions,” she
continues. “We see what has allowed you to do certain
things well and what stopped you.” It’s a practical
approach from a professional who is confident of
her ideas, based upon sound scientific principles.
In The Code…, she writes, “The life of [a] cell,
whatever its function, is orchestrated from within by an
abundance of stored information,… the evolutionary
blueprint coded into DNA and RNA is translated
effectively and harmoniously into a cell’s sustaining
and communicating activities. The synchronicity
of molecular events within cells and between cells
is a symphony of reliable and repeatable events.”
66 THE SUIT DECEMBER 2010
She further writes, “Every cell has the same DNA but
they’re not the same, they specialize, use a different
part of DNA. Cells learned that when they went from
being single-celled to multi-celled, collaboration was
essential… an individual must [also] learn to specialize
and, with that specialty, cooperate with others.”
According to King, “When we try to be
something we’re not, we feel stress… it’s easy
to know when you’re in alignment… it’s very
natural, resonates the truth of who you are.”
Religion and science/academia did not address the
full spectrum of King’s human needs and talents.
Religion lacked the intellectual challenge and
creativity. Science/academia lacked the compassion.
Her array of inborn potentials represents the core, the
center of her being. “Cells which make up the organs
and systems of the body direct their activities from
a centrally located nucleus… I knew that if I did not
begin to live from the center of my being, I would
collapse or explode from the tension,” she writes.
King’s prescription for centeredness is spelled
out in her book. “I provide a mirror for people to
view the resources of the essential self and the
vast energies available to them as a result. This
helps them to understand that their stumbling
and bumbling behaviors are not all that they are.
“Cellular wisdom tells us that we can help to re-
balance our lives by finding ways to express emotions,
promote feelings of love and warmth, and avoid
negative thinking. Each of these re-balancers has
been shown to reduce variability in the heart rate.
“I encourage my clients to view their disconcerting
behavior in its fullness, without self-deception, while
simultaneously being aware of the wise essential
self, always accessible,” she writes. “The local self
is very concerned with how it looks and can thus
be very defensive. Harsh or overly critical feedback
brings the local self to the fore, ready to do battle.”
“Establishing a strong connection with the essential self
is the foundation for transformative change,” she asserts.
Once we establish a strong connection with the
essential self, we need to connect that essential self to
others. King speaks of the principle of amplification
which “allows cells and systems to act in concert to
produce a larger or more complex outcome than
any single cell or system could produce alone.
“We explore ways that you as an individual can
amplify your values or belief within your community
to trigger positive social changes – the larger and
more complex your social network, the easier it
is for the ideas and values to spread to others.
“Do you want to make a difference in the world –
the clear message from cellular wisdom is make
connections. The action of a person with a well-
developed social network can set off a chain
reaction of amplified effects [and] impact… Act!
Take a small, but public step,” she readily asserts.
What about preconceived notions and prejudices?
“Processing information may involve a mental process
that is explicit and verbalized, requiring time and
attention. This mode is slow and deliberate. Or it
may involve a more automatic mode of processing.
[In our social interactions], when we meet someone
who would normally evoke our [engrained, automatic]
schemata, but who, in some way, does not conform
to our mental map, we may recognize that our
automatic mode of processing is inadequate and
[we may] shift to a [more] deliberate mode. Shifting
from an automatic mode to a more deliberate
way of processing… bring[s] our schemata to
consciousness and help[s] us to formulate a new view.”
In The Code…, King makes an interesting allusion
to the boundaries we seem to form around our social
selves which tend to isolate. “Like all living beings,
cells cannot thrive in isolation. Although they have
boundaries – membranes that define their limits
and maintain their integrity – those boundaries
don’t isolate the cell; much of each cell’s activity
is directed to communicating with other cells.”
Unfortunately, in socialized human beings, those
boundaries of the self get in the way of our core
being. She says, “Be present in the moment – people
are usually either being angry at the past or wanting
to change the future. The only moment of decision is
now, so pay attention to cues, internal and external.”
Currently, King is Professor Emeritus at Tufts,
splitting her time equally between writing, speaking,
coaching and coach training. Her mission statement
is “To greatly and expansively unfold my decision
to love and help people evoke their greatness.”
2010 DECEMBER THE SUIT 67
MKV Design Reveals
AD.apt at Sleepotel MKV’s design concept exemplifies how a guestroom
that is, in effect, several rooms in one can provide
hotel operators with the potential of greater revenue
and hotel guests with an environment they can control
to meet their needs. “More than ever before, hotel
managers need to optimise their rooms,” says Maria
Vafiadis. “We have suggested how this might be done
while achieving the highest quality experience for the
guest.”

MKV Design worked with a number of the most

respected names supplying the hotel sector today in
the development of AD.apt. These included VDA, GIA
Equation, MOB, Contardi, Brintons, Tektura, Moroso,
Cassina, Baumann Dekor, Cliq Designs, Hypnos,
(London – 10 December 2010) Luxury hotel and resort Architainment and AC/DC. Also linked with the Sleep
interior design company, MKV Design, revealed its Event are the European Hotel Design Awards. This
blueprint for a transformational hotel bedroom at this year MKV Design was honoured with the “Best Suite,
year’s Sleepotel, a showcase of creative concepts that is Interior Design of the Year” for its creation of the
part of Europe’s leading hotel design and development Presidential Suite at The Romanos Luxury Collection in
forum, The Sleep Event. Costa Navarino, Greece.
Named AD.apt, the concept room explores the
potential to combine smart and elegant design with
advanced technology and lighting in a vision to achieve
the holy grail of hotel-keeping – a room that provides a
truly customised guest experience. AD.apt transforms
through day and night. In one single space, the guest
may work, relax, socialise and sleep as completely as if
he, or she, were in several quite separate environments.

“As we increasingly live in a different way from a

generation ago – enabled to do so by technology and
under pressure to do so because of global warming –
the expectation is growing that we must have the
ability to transform our immediate environment,” says
Maria Vafiadis, managing director of MKV Design. “For
hotels, this is a really exciting opportunity. The chance
to be different by allowing guests to fully customise
their experience.” AD.apt room set with translucent screen
AD.apt is an orchestration of luxurious contemporary
furniture specially designed by Maria Vafiadis
founder of MKV Design to adjust to each incarnation
of the room together with the soft furnishings,
beautiful light fittings and stylish accessories that
guests would expect to find in a five-star hotel
guestroom. In the centre of the set is a large glass
screen which, by way of projections, can transform
from a multi-channel TV to video Skype screen to a
multitude of artworks and much more. The room is
controlled through pioneering, yet easy-to-use, in-
room systems designed to deliver significant energy
saving efficiencies for the hotel and personal choice
to the guest who controls the environment via an iPad.
AD.apt room set with projection on screen
68 THE SUIT DECEMBER 2010
MKV Design Wins 2010 Eu-
ropean Hotel Design Award
for The Romanos
(London – 1 December, 2010) Hospitality
interior design practice MKV Design has
been honoured with a European Hotel Design
Award for its creation of the Presidential Suite
at The Romanos, a Luxury Collection Resort in
Costa Navarino, Greece.

The Royal Villa Koroni was awarded “Best

Suite, Interior Design of the Year” for being
what the judges described as, “the epitome
of understated elegance with its beautiful
original interiors and continuity of design.”

The panel also stated that the manner in

which “the indoor-to-outdoor experience
makes the most of the location particularly
caught the judges’ eyes.” The Romanos was
the first hotel to open in Navarino Dunes, the
initial phase of Costa Navarino, a collection of
luxurious eco-resorts that will extend along Greece’s
Peloponnese coast.
The setting is magnificent: to one side ancient
reinstated olive groves and mountains; to the other
untouched dunes garlanding a beach that sweeps
around the Bay with the Ionian Sea beyond. The
Romanos Presidential Suite is a confluence of all that
this location has to offer. The Suite is located at the
farthest end of the hotel in its own grounds. Its 640 sq
metres, across three levels, include a thalassotherapy
and sauna suite, a gym, a master bedroom with two
dressing rooms,
two further bedrooms and butler’s quarters.
Outside, the pool gives onto a series of decks to provide
light or shade and a range of glorious views; a private
sandy beach has been created extending down
to the dunes. Gently flowing water connects outdoors
with the interior channelled from the pool into the
ground floor where it circulates the stairwell and lift.
The two principle areas on the ground floor are the
sitting room and dining room with its stunning double-
height volume soaring to a gallery accommodating the
study under a traditionally crafted exposed timber roof.

Throughout, the walls are finished in alternating

layers of polished and textured creamy stucco
achieving a smart and very subtle
envelope. Flooring is a dark oak
timber, fabrics are natural linens,
cottons and silks in neutral tones and
the furniture is modern and sleek.

The three bathrooms are in off-

white Greek marble and off-white
mosaic with the finest bronze details.
The curated artwork, which explores the region’s
ecology, is all by young Greek artists with the
exception of a collection of 18th
Century prints in the dining room
that depicts the nearby fortress town
of Koroni.

2010 DECEMBER THE SUIT 69

About MKV Design
MKV Design is a London-based interior design prac-
tice that specialises in the luxury international hotel
and resort sector. Working with owners, develop-
ers and leading global hotel groups, MKV develops
outstanding, individual solutions that distinguish its
projects and ensure they serve the test of time. The
practice is also sensitive to local history and cul-
ture and, because it appreciates that beautiful hotel
interiors are both art and business, maximum ef-
fort is put into interpreting clients’ goals and market
trends in a creative but, at the same time, finan-
cially viable way. Founded by Maria Vafiadis over a
decade ago, the practice’s portfolio encompass-
es chic urban hotels, grand historic establishments,
business hotels and new-build resorts that re-
flect a genuine interpretation of architectural and
geographic reference.

Current/recent projects include The Romanos Lux-

ury Collection and Westin, Costa Navarino, Greece;
Hotel Schweizerhof, Bern; Hotel Royal-Savoy, Lau-
sanne; Hotel Palace Burgenstock, Switzerland; the
Angsana Santorini for Banyan Tree; a new Re-
gent hotel in Abu Dhabi; Elea Golf Club Cyprus; The
Alcron and Lannova hotels, both in Prague; the re-
furbishment of The Sheraton Grand, Edinburgh; and
MKV’s second Radisson Blu in Johannesburg.
Additional information can also be found at
w w w . m k v d e s i g n . c o m .

The prestigious European Hotel Design Awards,

held annually in the UK, recognise the outstanding
achievements of architects, designers, operators
and developers of hotels. The awards – now in their
13th year - are judged by an expert panel, including
prominent travel editors and industry professionals,
and are part of The Sleep Event, Europe’s lead-
ing hotel design and development forum.
For further information and hi res images, please contact:

Su Pecha/Alicia Sheber at ESP Business Development

+44 (0)208 374 6320/4476 asheber@espbusinessde-
velopment.com

70 THE SUIT DECEMBER 2010

 Space to Meet 21st Century Style
London – 5th November 2010
– The avant-garde Andaz
Liverpool Street hotel, (Hyatt’s
latest lifestyle brand), in the
City of London has just added
a delightfully original addition
to its meeting options in a
refurbishment of its Gallery
and Upper Deck within the
central atrium. Designed by
Wilsdon Design Associates
with project management
by Confluence pcm and fit-
out work undertaken by
StructureTone UK, the Gallery
and Upper Deck now provide
between them a flexible range
of pre-function, break-out,
reception and informal meeting
options all within an exciting
and high quality contemporary
envelope. The centrepiece of
the new Gallery is a unique was the fancoil installation along to a very collaborative approach
feature wall that serves to contain one wall of the Gallery. This is between the hotel and all members
fridges, ice wells and storage but now housed in a custom-designed of the team.” General Manager,
has been so designed that when not unit in the style of the feature wall Arnaud de Saint-Exupéry says,
in use it appears to be an intriguing that also provides a buffet counter “Our newly refurbished Gallery
art installation. Built on-site and for larger functions. Lighting was will continue the consistency and
comprising numerous laminates, key to creating a more inviting harmony that the areas of Andaz
timber and mirror elements, the ambience. The fit-out project Liverpool Street are renowned for,
wall acts as the signature piece; therefore involved new electrical while also embracing the “barrier-
it also serves as the wall to the installations including specialist free” concept, which is part of the
staircase leading to the Upper Deck. lighting to both the feature wall and Andaz DNA. Similar to the Lounge,
The wall has been cut back at the the buffet unit and high level tube where guests are welcomed by
bottom of the stairs and replaced lighting on rigs. All the lighting has our hosts to provide an easy and
by glass – a simple solution to the been programmed for scene setting. smooth check-in while comfortably
previous problem of guests being StructureTone was also responsible seated and enjoying a glass of wine
unable to see the staircase hidden for the refurbishment of the Gallery or a coffee and the Studio meeting
entirely behind a solid wall and toilets, bringing them up to the room with its interactive kitchen
therefore not realizing that there highest quality standards. “The and open service area, the new
was an upper level. The timber to entire project, including strip-out, Gallery brings yet a more interactive
the stairs has been refreshed and, was completed by StructureTone in experience with our guests, while
elsewhere, new timber flooring has three weeks,” says Mark Ballantine creating a design-driven area with
been selected to match the original. who heads StructureTone’s Hotel all modern comforts.”
Another issue for the project team Division. “This was achieved thanks

2010 DECEMBER THE SUIT 71

 California Dreaming
Suzanne Furst
Award Winning Designer
By Jean Paul
Suit Staff Writer

The architectural layout of the entry hall necessitated the furnishing of its oversized space.
Suzanne used eclectic art from the Lowe Gallery to bring it visual excitement and dimension.

A familiar face on HGTV Designer’s Challenge and the
Style Network, Suzanne Furst, owner of Suzanne Furst
Interiors, has a strong passion for interior design.
Furst’s business is an award-winning design
company based in Los Angeles. Speaking with The Suit
Magazine from her California office, she explained that
networking helped get her venture off the ground. “My
business evolved through networking and industry
events. It was there that I met manufacturers, vendors,
and media professionals from Angeleno Magazine,
Los Angeles Magazine, California Homes, Elle Décor
and many others that I was published in, including
the Los Angeles Times. My career would not have
taken off if I hadn’t connected with all these people.”
She founded her company in 1987, and for the past
72 THE SUIT DECEMBER 2010
23 years she has handled high-profile interior design
projects, with the aim of surpassing her customers’
expectations. She strives to create designs that inspire
her clients—not only on a visual level, but on an
emotional level as well. Building on solid relationships,
Furst works with a dedicated team to shape every
project with great attention to detail. “ I have been
fortunate enough to work with sub-contractors and
vendors who provide the quality and workmanship
necessary to fulfill my custom specifications.”
Furst was born and raised in New York City, but moved
to California to start her education. She received her
degree from UCLA Interior Design Extension, and now
she resides on the West Side, with a second home
in Malibu, California. She loves art and architecture,
and her hard work affords her the opportunity to
travel the world in search of design inspiration.

Her eclectic style has allowed her to work at every level

of interior design. Suzanne has a unique sensibility for
providing a perfect color palette harmonious with each
client’s environment. She is experienced in a myriad
of different areas—including space planning, dramatic
lighting, architectural detailing, high-end kitchens,
and baths—and is known for her ability to create
warm, comfortable and engaging rooms. Her extensive
breadth of knowledge allows her to work within
all design styles, including Old World, Traditional,
Spanish, Mediterranean, Pan-Asian, Art Deco, Retro-
Modern, Transitional and Classic Contemporary.
Furst also has an environmental side. She supports
ecological design, and is a proponent of green décor,
integrating sustainable products into a client’s
home environment. She thinks that the stylish and
contemporary approach—“keeping it simple”—serves as
a great metaphor for “keeping it sustainable.” She prides
herself on recommending earth-friendly products, and
she encourages manufacturers to produce fabrics, wall
coverings and furniture using sustainable materials.

A humanitarian at heart, Furst believes in giving back

to the community. Currently, she sits on the board
of Friends of Greystone, a non-profit organization in
Beverly Hills that is working to restore and refurbish the
historic Greystone Mansion for public use. She was also
the creator and founding chair of Beverly Hills Garden
and Design Showcase House at Greystone Mansion.

Most recently, she finished a project for the Charles

Cobb Apartments, a housing complex for the homeless
in downtown Los Angeles. Her designs incorporated a
palette of warm, inviting colors and a high style look,
which has ultimately uplifted residents’ self-worth,
inspiring them to reintegrate back into society. The
development cost an estimated $13.1 million, including
first floor offices for healthcare, case management and
other services—a combination known as supportive
housing. Residents pay 30 percent of their income in rent.
So far, the Charles Cobb development has flourished,
receiving much publicity in the media. “We have
created a new model for affordable housing, funded by
charitable groups.” Furst said. She is enthusiastic about
her contribution to the community where she found
success, and looks forward to a continued career of
using her talents to improve the living spaces of others.

2010 DECEMBER THE SUIT 73

 Mini Brute
Service Co., Inc.
1025 Orca St.
Anchorage, AK 99501
CALL US
(866) 788-0816
 A Bright Light
in Anchorage
By Suit Staff Writer
The winters are long and the days are short in Anchorage,
Alaska. But the nights aren’t so dark, thanks to Paul L.
Buchholz, owner of Mini Brute Service Incorporated.
With his extensive experience and constantly evolving
expertise, Buchholz has made energy-efficient
lighting available for residential, commercial and
industrial customers all over the state of Alaska.
Buchholz’s passion for lighting began right out
of high school, when he took a job working for
his mentor Bob Simpson at a local science shop.
“I’ve been really into it since then,” Buchholz says.
He’s worked in the lighting field ever since, and
eventually earned a general contractor’s license.
He’s been the proud owner of Mini Brute Service
Inc. for more than six years, and he continues to
make significant contributions to energy efficiency.
One of Buchholz’s power-saving products was
developed by NASA to help customers save
on their household electricity bills. “With new
technology, I’ve cut people’s light bills in half
with a new style of lighting. This is better for
the environment and everyone,” says Buchholz.
Although the company sells residential, commercial,
and industrial products, the bulk of their business
is commercial. “In Alaska there is a lot of darkness
in the winter, and businesses find it important to
make sure that they can see properly and be safe
during these times,” Buchholz says. The company
specializes in three main areas; they provide interior
and exterior lighting services, sign installation
and maintenance, and energy efficiency upgrades.
While his company continues to serve customers and
companies throughout Alaska, Mini Brute Service Inc.
has not been immune to the financial recession. “The
economy has affected the company for the past couple
of years, and business has slowed down a lot here,”
he said. Still, he’s hopeful that things are beginning to
turn around. “Last year was worse than this year, so
I’m hoping it gets better. Right now business is starting
to pick up, and it does get relatively busy in the winter
time. Around mid-September or October, I’m backed
up for about six to 12 weeks on orders,” Buchholz says.
Buchholz has been working in the lighting industry for
more than 30 years, and although he has had mentors
like Simpson, Buchholz‘s main role model is his father.
“Anytime I had a problem, he was there for me. I get my
work ethic from him.” Buchholz recalls that the best
lesson he learned from his father was the importance
of accountability. “My word is my bond. If you make
a promise, you better keep it; that’s what I live by.”
According to Buchholz, hard work, honesty, and strong
ethics are the keys to success, along with flexibility.
“If you get stubborn and say ‘I’m going to do it my
way,’ then you won’t be around for long because things
change so much,” says Buchholz. He also believes in
the importance of a solid workforce, explaining, “I
am only as good as my workers, and I stand behind
everything they do. If they mess something up, I will
go out and fix it for free if I have to. I like to see the
customers satisfied with my company’s work.” For that
dedication, Mini Brute Service Inc. has earned an A+
rating with the Better Business Bureau, and Buchholz’s
clients are happy with the service they receive.
Buchholz continues to improve his work through
lighting seminars and new marketing strategies. He
is well respected as a leader in the lighting industry,
and his goal is to encourage others to adapt to an
energy-conscious lifestyle by swapping out regular
light bulbs for more efficient ones. “Most people
don’t think that they should do it,” he says, “even
though the Environmental Protection Agency says
they should, for the better of the world in the long
run.” He hopes that he can use his business to make
a dent in his community’s energy consumption.
The company has not yet worked outside of
Alaska, but Buchholz makes it clear that he will go
anywhere service is needed. Buchholz is already
planning new projects for the next year, and they
include the continuing increase of energy efficiency
throughout Alaska and in other states as well.
For more information, please call 1-866-
788-0816 or visit www.Minibrute.net .
2010 DECEMBER THE SUIT 75
 By Staff Writer
Daniel Horowitz

In the aftermath of the housing market’s boom and bust,

the US real estate industry is recovering from a tough
blow. It takes a savvy realtor to maintain a strong presence
during a collapsing economy, and Arizona real estate
agent Helen Anderson is one of few to have achieved this
feat. “There are over 40,000 real estate agents in Arizona
right now,” said Anderson. “In order to stand out, in
order to be special, you have to give over and above. You
can’t just put a sign out front and expect people to call
you.” After years in the business, she knows that success
depends on an extraordinary dedication to clients.

Anderson got her start in real estate in the early nineties, and
over time she has cultivated excellent sales skills, innovative
marketing strategies, and consistent professionalism. Above
all, Anderson believes that connecting with her clients on
a personal level is essential for good business. “In my real
estate, I’ve always used a hands-on approach,” she says. “I
always stay in touch with my clients. They like the personal
attention. Most become dear friends after our transactions.”

Despite her early success in the nineties, Anderson was

prepared for the fluctuating market. “Real estate has
always been about valleys and mountains, and one has
to prepare for it. I was very lucky by getting into it in the
early nineties, because it was on its way to a mountain
and stayed there for quite a few years,” she says. But she
knew that good markets can’t last forever, and today she
is reaping the rewards of good foresight. “I’ve always been
a believer in cushioning everything you do, because there
are going to be bumps along the road. With that mindset,
I was prepared for it. Unfortunately, many agents could
not sustain themselves. But the people with the experience,
who had been in it for many years, knew how to do it.”

Today, Anderson is not only a highly regarded real estate

agent; she is also a motivational speaker, a sales trainer, a
recipient of the prestigious People Build Award for the last
fifteen years, and a member of the Chairman's Circle, which
includes only the top one percent of realtors nationwide.

Anderson doesn’t take sole credit for her incredible

achievements; she owes much of her success and inspiration
to her father. “My dad was my best teacher and mentor.
He always told me about different philosophies, and it was
really great because I had such a choice to go by,” she says.
“He’d always talk about the ladder of success, and how
you’d push the people in front of you and pull the people
behind you, and you get up that ladder. But then he’d turn

76 THE SUIT DECEMBER 2010

 At the Heart of Real Estate
around and say, ‘Just remember, when you follows
in another’s footsteps, you can never lead.’ I had
plenty of choices to pick from. He was quite a man.”
The values she learned from her father stuck
with her; today, in addition to her demanding
responsibilities as a real estate agent, Anderson
also makes an effort to give back to the community.
“When I was in business many years ago, I always did
my civic duty and collected toys at Christmastime,
but I had never done anything truly personal,”
she says. “But one year, over thirty years ago, I
encountered this nun, and she was crying. I went
over and asked, ‘What’s wrong? How can I help
you?’ Then she told me that she’d had many doors
slammed in her face that day. She had been trying to
see if there were vendors that would give her broken
toys and discontinued items so that she could give
them to underprivileged American Indian children.”
That conversation motivated Anderson to take things
into her own hands. She organized a program to
give Christmas gifts to underprivileged students at a
Catholic mission on the Gila River Indian Reservation,
and to children in southern Phoenix. On the last day
of school before Christmas, Anderson and three
friends don holiday costumes and visit individual
classrooms to deliver the gifts. Recently, Anderson’s
Secret Santa program was profiled on FOX News and
CNN. “Santa will always come as long as I’m alive,” said
Anderson. Her project has brought smiles to the faces
of underprivileged children for thirty years running.
Anderson brings that same personal touch to her
work as a realtor, and she not only succeeds in her
job, she truly enjoys it. “I’ve always been in the market
for sales. I love the hands-on, face to face interaction
and talking with people. I was naturally drawn to real
estate in the early nineties, and I’ve loved it ever since.”
2010 DECEMBER THE SUIT 77
 is I’m very sympathetic with clients and their agenda,
and I work very hard to create distinctive architectural
solutions based on that sympathetic approach,” says
Bormann. “I am not only sympathetic to the clients;
I’m sympathetic to the conditions. If it’s a remodeling
project, I’m sympathetic to the house. If it’s a site, I’m
sympathetic to the surrounding nature. I’m always
by Catherine Park told by clients that this is what makes me different.”
Can a small architectural firm take on high- Bormann’s method of home remodeling relies heavily
profile projects and deliver excellent results? on that spirit of collaboration. He’s got a unique
Absolutely, according to Paul Bormann, owner talent for sketching by hand, which comes in handy
of Bormann Eitemiller Architects. From their for communicating with clients. “At a meeting, I can
office in Denver, Colorado, he and his wife, co- draw a three-dimensional perspective of a building
owner Christine Eitimiller, consistently prove that for the client,” he explains. “I don’t predetermine a
the big jobs don’t always require big companies. design solution at the beginning of a project. I love
There are two main facets of architecture— that a client has a say in how the project evolves.”
construction and design—and Bormann specializes Bormann balances out his architectural work with
in what he does best. “I’m more on the design side personal projects too, making him a veritable jack-of-
of things,” he told The Suit Magazine. Construction- all-trades. He’s currently working on a children’s book,
based projects often require considerable manpower, putting together a new website at paulbormannarchitect.
he explained, but that’s not the case in his line of work. com, and moonlighting as the lead guitarist for Pulse
“You don’t need an army of architects to produce a good [insert link: pulsebandrocks.com], a local classic rock
design; you just need a handful of talented people.” band. With all this going for him, he’s weathering the
And Bormann and Eitemiller have certainly shown national financial crisis and optimistic about where his
that they’ve got the talent to tackle big projects. One various ventures will take him when the economy recovers.
of their most high-profile clients was actor Tim Allen,
for whom they designed a custom house in Colorado.
Bormann has also worked with larger companies, most
notably the famous Pelli Clarke Pelli firm. With them,
he worked on the Bank
of America Corporate Bank of America Tower
Center in Charlotte,
North Carolina, a
soaring, multi-tiered
skyscraper that still
ranks as the tallest
building in the state.
With all this experience
behind him, Bormann
continues to devote his
talents to new projects
in the Colorado area.
One thing that sets
Bormann Eitemiller
Architects apart from
other firms is Bormann’s
ability to design each
project with the client’s
best interests at heart.
“The nature of what
separates me from the
majority of other firms Founders Hall

78 THE SUIT DECEMBER 2010

 GUY ARCHITECTS
Arctic Architecture with Warmth and Practicality
By Gary Stevens
Suit Staff Writer
Guy Architects, founded by Wayne Guy in 1990,
is an architectural boutique business. Innovation
and quality are its hallmarks, incorporating bold
forms and colors inspired by the landscapes of
the North: incredibly blue skies, bright yellow
roof-lines, and vibrant fall colors reflecting the
abundance of birch in the Arctic environment.
“We focus on architectural excellence. There is no
project too big or small for our standard of excellence,”
Guy told the Suit Magazine recently. That’s why he
ventured into the business world on his own—the
repetitious production of assembly-line designs was
not for him. The more corporate world of architecture,
as he put it, “was not a culture for improvement.”
The firm provides services beyond simply design. He
explained, “I work up the design documents, make a
tender, solicit prices, and negotiate with contractors—
all phases of design through building.” Guy also
serves as a member of the Canadian Design Institute.
In terms of green building, he practices several
innovations. “I place insulation on the outside of a
structure, with lots of windows, utilizing the light and
feel of ambiance natural to the environment south of
the Arctic Circle,” he explains. “We get almost 24 hours
of sunlight in summer, so skylights and windows are
important in my designs. In the winter we use indirect
lighting, giving a sense of day. It’s peaceful, making it
feel like you’re outdoors. We spend 98 percent of the
wintertime indoors, so I create an indoor environment
Photos by Tim Atherton
which is not so oppressive.” Another feature of his
designs is a new type of ventilation requiring less
energy. It uses people’s warmth, with a lower velocity,
“so there is less dust and cleaner air, which is also good
for hypoallergenic kids and especially schools,” he said.
A concern for the human side of design is reflected
in one of his favorite creations, the Ecole Alain St. Cyr,
a school and community center, which is considered
one of the top 1000 buildings in the Americas. Many
of Guy’s other projects have also been in the public
sector. “There was a recent Canadian funding program
for municipal infrastructure, from which I got several
jobs,” he told The Suit. The firm has designed some of
Canada’s most prominent structures, like the Canadian
Broadcasting Corporation’s Yellowknife office building
and the Canadian Justice Department headquarters.
With all of his experience in the field, Guy can
offer sound advice to emerging entrepreneurs:
“Study the market and identify a market sector
in which to specialize; pool financial resources;
know what you like and do what you like.”
The future looks bright for Guy Architects. “I
have on the board a new convenience store and gas
station. It’ll be a 10,000 square foot structure, with a
strong cultural expression of the owners’ heritage as
First Nations people,” he said. He is looking forward
to this and other projects that will reflect both
the wishes of his clients and the arctic beauty of
Yellowknife. Guy’s emphasis on aesthetic appeal, his
eco-friendly integration of the natural environment,
and his careful awareness of cost add up to an
enterprise that fulfills the needs of a diverse clientele.
2010 DECEMBER THE SUIT 79
 A Lifelong Connection to Count Basie
Aaron Woodward III Story
By Lorenn Peer, for The Suit Magazine
Not every kid gets to call a Count ‘dad.’ Not every
kid’s dad has a buddy roster boasting the likes of
Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald and Quincy Jones. Not
every kid can stroll through Manhattan and stumble
across a street named after his dad. But Aaron A.
Woodward III, the informally adopted son oflegendary
late jazz bandleader William “Count” Basie, can.
Today, Woodward is CEO of Count Basie Enterprises,
the administrative operation behind the Count
Basie Orchestra. The iconic big band, established
by the Count more than half a century ago, is still
enrapturing audiences around the globe with the
signature sound of Basie, 26 years after his death.
Woodward, 63, an ordained minister and an accountant
by profession, had assumed leadership over his adoptive
father’s enterprise in 1983, a year before Basie died.
As a young man, Woodard never anticipateddevoting
his adult life to running one of the most influential
jazz bands in history. He grew up in 1950s and ‘60s
in St. Albans, Queens when the neighborhood was
home to such notable residents as Lena Horne,
Ella Fitzgerald, James Brown and John Coltrane.
He was barely ten years old when he first met his
neighbors across the street – Count Basie and his wife,
Catherine, whom he affectionately refers to as ‘Ma.’
Ma Basie and Woodward had an immediate connection.
“My spirit and her spirit met, even when I was a little guy,”
he says, describing her as “a piece of work.” She had a
profound impact on his life, teaching him how to swim,
how to think, and how to interact with young ladies.
Most memorable to young Woodward, Ma Basie had
taught him how to drive, using none other than the
Count’s 1960 convertible Cadillac – the second largest
Cadillac ever made, he says. This Cadillac also got
Woodward into some trouble when, as a mischievous
14-year-old, he tried to use it to start Basie’s battery-
dead Jaguar – by pushing the Cadillac against it.
Ma Basie had been working in the house when Woodward
and his adopted Basie brother, Lamont Gilmore,
said to her, “Hey, Ma, we wanna start up Dad’s car.”
80 THE SUIT DECEMBER 2010
“No, dear, you can’t push a car with a Cadillac,” she replied.
They heard her, but the boys felt they knew more
about cars than she did, and decided to “give it a go.” Of
course, things didn’t go as planned; the Cadillac ran into
the Jaguar and knocked out the grill. But good-spirited
Ma didn’t reprimand them. In fact, says Woodward, she
must have amusedly watched them do it through the
window. “We learned that we shouldn’t have done it,
but she gave us an opportunity to do something that
we otherwise would not have had the chance to do.”
Dad Basie was always on the road with his band,
Woodward recalls, and often away from home. “He
was a mystical character who would come in and out,
and everyone would say, ‘Oooh,… Count Basie!’” he
says. But despite Basie’s celebrity status, Woodward
fondly remembers him being a very regular guy
– warm, loving, kind and personable. “He would
never disrespect another human being or say that
your accolades or acknowledgment of him were any
less than worthy of his best. That’s a classy guy.”
As the years progressed, a very close and personal
relationship grew between Woodward and the Basies.
Even though he had parents who loved him, he says,
the Basies took him under their wings and treated
him as if he were their own, ultimately considering
him their son. They remained close to him even
when he left New York to attend college in Ohio.
Upon graduating college, Woodward returned to
New York and landed his first job with the First
National City Bank. In fact, Ma Basie’s connections in
the area (she was an avid community activist) helped
him get the job. Woodward was eventually awarded a
managerial position at the Madison Avenue and 65th
Street branch in Manhattan. “It was a privilege,” he says.
However, with the privilege came difficulty. As an
African American, Woodward faced challenges at his job.
“But I was taught never to be a crybaby, and this was part
of what you had to deal with – so I had to deal with it.”
And he did, for a while. But he grew to dislike
the high-pressureatmosphere at the bank.
“It was like being in a foreign environment
– behind enemy lines every day,” he says. you, encouraging you on the surface, and everybody
Woodward eventually left the bank and took a job in seems to be for you – but, my gosh, that’s not it.”
a college budget office. Later, he became an insurance In fact, being an intermediary between Basie and his
broker with New York Life Insurance Company. Despite the band members and clients won Woodward a fair share
challenges, Woodward was building a successful career. of resentment. Some of them had known Woodward
By the 1970s, when Basie became ill, Woodward since he was a child and did not like having to
would occasionally take a leave of absence from work communicate through him. Woodward says this created
to accompany the Count him on the road. “To a person discord within the family, and some people felt that
who hasn’t done it, it sounds like some glamorous, he’d overstepped his bounds. “That wasn’t the case. I
wonderful, great, exciting scenario – and initially it is,” was doing what he told me to do,” he says, resolutely.
says Woodward, “but it’s far more complicated than Finally, in April of 1984, Basie succumbed to
that, especially when you’re looking out for someone.” pancreatic cancer.
Nevertheless, it did have its perks. “When you have From the time Woodward began working for Count
somebody of the magnitude of Count Basie, every time Basie Enterprises up until Basie’s death, the adopted
you turn around, there’s another person talking to son had spent nearly every day by his side. He enjoyed
him, and your mouth drops open,” he says. “It could many memorable moments throughout the course of
be Joe Louis, Muhammad Ali, Bill Cosby, Stevie Wonder his work for Count Basie Enterprises.However, one very
or Sean Connery. You want to act like, ‘Oh my gosh, special moment made an indelible impression on him:
it’s James Bond!’ But you a 1985 lunch at the White
can’t do that – you have “When you have somebody of House with President
to act like it’s normal.” Ronald Reagan, and in
In 1983, Ma Basie, the magnitude of Count Basie, the presence of Frank
who had kept the books Sinatra, Jacques Cousteau,
for her husband’s busy
every time you turn around, astronaut Chuck Yeager,
orchestra, died of a heart there’s another person talking to among other notable
attack, and Basie needed guests. He was invited
someone to fill her shoes. him, and your mouth drops open,” to receive, on behalf of
“She had her eyes and he says. “It could be Joe Louis, the Count, a posthumous
ears on everything, so Presidential Medal of
nothing would happen to Mohammad Ali, Bill Cosby, Stevie Freedom, American’s
him,” explains Woodward. highest civilian honor.
Valuing Woodward’s
Wonder or Sean Connery. You “I was just amazed at
background in finance and want to act like, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s meeting Ronald Reagan,
management, and trusting and I was amazed at his
him like his own son, Basie James Bond!’ But you can’t do that ability to make me feel
pressured him to step – you have to act like it’s normal.” comfortable,” he says.
in. But for many reasons, According to The New
Woodward was reluctant York Times, Woodward
to do so. “First thing, I told hundreds of mourners
didn’t want him to feel like at Basie’s funeral that
I was trying to sponge off of him,” he says. Moreover, Basie “would not want you to forget for one minute
Woodward was already a husband and father of two at that [his orchestra] was the best on planet Earth.”
the time, which would make all the necessary traveling In 2010, still faithfully running his adoptive
difficult. But the Count knew there was only one man fit father’s business, Woodward continues to convince
for the job. “To me, it was the highest compliment that’s audiences worldwide that his dad’s orchestra is
ever been paid to me,” he says. “That he would consider still the best anywhere. Still making meaningful
me worthy to come in and assist him – watch his back.” contributions to the world of Jazz with a 2011 tour
In May of 1983, Woodward assumed leadership schedule performing around the globe, the business
of Count Basie Enterprises, easing the burden continues going strong. “Above all, we want to keep
on Basie. “Nobody would come to him during the music true to the Basie way,” Woodward says.
the last year of his life,” he says. “He would have Grateful for all the good that has been bestowed
everyone and everything comethrough me.” upon him – being blessed with the ability to maintain
In his intermediary role, Woodward strove to live a successful business and keeping Count Basie’s
up to his mentor’s example. Basie was a genius in legacy alive – Woodward feels there is more to his
dealing with human beings, says Woodward. “It success than a big band, good music, and hard
was his highest quality, and that’s what made him work. “I would not have been able to keep the Count
special and unique in terms of bandleaders.” Basie Enterprise going without the support of my
Woodward admired him greatly for it, and studied his wife, Joan, and my sons, Aaron IV, Alan, Darnel, and
skills carefully; doing so, afforded him a crash course Kevin,” he says. “And, I would not be standing now if
in the entertainment business. “And it’s not a normal not for my relationship with Jesus,” he quickly adds.
business,” says Woodward. “Everybody is smiling at
2010 DECEMBER THE SUIT 81
 ‘If You Got the Will, then Tae Bo Will Be the Way’
by Patty Hasting
Suit Staff Writer

Fitness expert, actor and seven-

time world karate champion
Billy Blanks explained the
acronym of Tae Bo.
“T stands for Total.
A stands for Awareness.
E stands for Excellence.
B stands for Body.
O stands for Obedience.”

As Blanks leads Tae Bo and martial arts classes at Nobody would be walking,” Blanks quickly concludes.
his Los Angeles studio, you would never suspect Tae Bo’s mix of martial arts, boxing and dance
that the 55-year-old suffers from dyslexia and hip requires a discipline and focus in order to make total-
complications. He recently returned from Japan – a body workouts a part of one’s lifestyle. The form
birthplace of martial arts. One of his fundamental he developed has worked for millions of people,
concepts is that we need to understand our bodies. as it results from effort and initiative. “If you got
the will, then Tae Bo will be the way. You need
“Learn how to communicate with your body. Learn to step out. You need to work hard,” Blanks said.
the things that your body can do and can’t do. I think
that inspires people more because then you can set During our interview, he stressed that practicing
goals. People can see in their own eyes that they can regular exercise later in life proves difficult if doing
achieve. Even if it’s an inch, they can achieve,” said so has not already been part of one’s lifestyle. But
Blanks, who stresses intrapersonal communication as that does not mean you have to over-do it. Physical
vital to physical fitness and who believes that fitnessfitness, as a lifestyle, could mean a 15-to-20 minute
begins with a state of mind. “If you can change your workout, and not necessarily every day. According to
insides, you can change your outsides,” he added. Blanks, everybody exercises differently, depending on
what one’s body wants and needs. His oldest student,
Blanks differentiates between exercising for weight at 102 years old, works out three to four days a week.
loss and teaching physical fitness as a lifestyle, “It’s like a marathon. You run it at your own pace.”
the latter being part of who you are, what you
expect from yourself; it requires dedication and Blanks collaborated with his daughter, former Ju Jitsu
offers lasting results. It is something you can learn. World Champion and Junior Olympic Gold Medalist
Shellie Blanks Cimarosti, on his latest project, “PT
“When you come out of your mother’s womb, everybody 24/7 Workout.” It encourages people to know their
is taught. Everybody expects a baby to walk between bodies and use fitness as a communication tool. By
nine to 12 months. Everybody expects that. So, walking linking mind and body, he makes physical fitness
is a lifestyle. Can you imagine if a baby said to his a responsibility, as essential as eating and walking.
momma at a certain age, ‘Mummy, walking is too hard.’ He say to those who try to integrate physical fitness

82 THE SUIT DECEMBER 2010

 into a busy life, “Don’t try to do things. Just do.”
With a team of less than half a dozen direct employees,
Blanks reaches an international audience through fitness
programs and DVDs. By speaking to hundreds of people
all over the world, including those in the Armed Forces
and as a member of the President’s Council for Physical
Fitness and Sport, he gives people what his parents and
teachers gave to him: unconditional love and support.
“You give, you receive. What you give out, people
give back. And to me that’s what Tae Bo represents,”
stated Blanks, who attributes his success – in terms
of both professional and fitness goals – to community
All other logos and trade names are property of their respective owners.
teaching others to communicate with their bodies,
but, in order to do so they have to take that first step
and start the conversation. After that, he is convinced
that people will want and need the same thing out of a
workout: motivation. “They need you to put your hand
on their back and say, ‘Come on. Let’s go. Let’s do it.’”
This support helps bolster fitness within families. Blanks
explained that parents and kids who sweat together build
their relationships, as they talk about their workouts. “If
you take them and put them in a room and work them
out together, all of a sudden you see things change.”

support. His humble background, as the fourth He believes that children who are not physically active
of 15 children born in Erie, Pennsylvania, attests become bored. They misplace their frustration by hurting
to his use of resources, and it is also evidence of themselves or other people. Through physical activity,
his own sense of self-motivation and humility. their minds also become active. Accordingly, physical
fitness empowers children to succeed in their studies,
“The most important thing for me is giving back become stronger athletes and communicate better
to my community because my community gave to with themselves and their families. To complement
me. I remember back in 1978,” he recalled, “I had this self-empowerment effort, he founded “The Billy
the opportunity to go to the world games, and to be Blanks Foundation,” an organization committed to
able to go to the world games you need a sponsor. helping high-risk youth achieve their fullest potential.
My community helped sponsor me, and I ended up
winning a gold medal and the world championship.” Meanwhile, Billy Blanks continues to create new workout
In his travels to over 100 countries, Blanks discovered videos to help individuals take control of their minds and
that obesity has reaching into even the healthiest cultures. bodies. His advice is basic: “Keep stepping. Stay focused.”
He believes that he can eradicate obesity through

2010 DECEMBER THE SUIT 83

 There are only a handful of
ninth-degree Hapkido black
belts in the US, and Grand
Master Kwang Seek Hyun is
one of them. In an unassuming
two-story brick building on
Chicago’s Western Avenue,
Hyun offers classes in self-
defense, sharing lessons he
learned as a young man in his
native Korea. Since arriving in
the USA in 1969, he has trained
over 25,000 students and
6,000 police and corrections
officers. As anyone with the most cursory knowledge
of martial arts is aware, such success is not easy to
achieve. The Suit wanted to know what drew Hyun
to Hapkido as a young boy, and to learn more about
his journey from a young martial arts student to
a respected member of the Hapkido elite in the US.
The martial arts form Hapkido is often translated to
mean “the way of co-ordinating energy.” It strikes a
balance between soft techniques such as Aikido and
harder forms like Taekwondo. Hyun studied Judo
in his childhood, but it was a boyhood quarrel that
piqued his fascination with Hapkido. Arguing with
a friend who was studying Karate, an impassioned
debate soon sparked a contest over the superiority
of their respective martial arts. Hyun lost the contest
but gained an important insight, as he told The Suit:
“I realized [that] Judo was geared to be a sport with
rules, whereas Hapkido was a pure martial art.”
Since then, Hyun has believed that aesthetically
impressive manoeuvres might serve well in sporting
contest, but are useless in proper self defense.
Interestingly, Hyun’s first passion was not martial
arts, but operatic singing. As a graduate of the music
program at Seoul National University, he initially
considered a career in musical performance. Luckily
for Chicago’s Hapkido aficionados, Hyun realized that
language barriers in the US might get in the way of
84 THE SUIT DECEMBER 2010
a singing career. After serving as a sergeant in the
Korean Air Force, Hyun left his native Korea to travel to
the USA in 1969, eager to make a “meaningful cultural
exchange.” After an initial spell teaching Hapkido and
self defence at Carroll College in Wisconsin, Hyun
moved to Chicago, where he has been ever since. He
has opened two mixed martial arts centers in the
windy city, and since 1971, these schools have been the
backdrop to a diligent and prodigious teaching career.
Much of Hyun’s teaching in the States has focused
on giving professionals the means to defend
themselves against attackers. He believes that
Hapkido’s particular effectiveness can be traced
right back to one of its most fundamental principles.
“Hapkido's principle is water: good balance, soft
movement for hard attack, and hard movement for a
soft attack. For example, if a 2x4 is swung at the head,
avoiding is the best technique,” jokes Hyun. Many of the
techniques employed in Hapkido derive from The Water
Principle, or “Yu”. When rushing water meets an obstacle
in its path, it flows around rather than into the obstacle.
In the same way, many defense tactics in Hapkido are
used to avoid direct confrontation, instead providing
ways to use an adversary’s strength against them.
Hyun employs a holistic approach to Hapkido, and
defines the martial art as “the harmony of body and
mind together”. The demanding training is “part
of a better life” in which the emphasis is always on
peace and defense rather than violence: “We train to
build confidence in both body and mind so we don’t
have to fight.” Training in Hapkido is not merely
a means to win street fights – it is an end in itself.
As one of the few ninth-degree black belts in the
US, a Grand Master, a teacher and an inspiration to
thousands of students over the years, what could
be left to achieve for Hyun? His answer reiterates
his passionate belief in the holistic approach to
Hapkido, and suggests that, really, the journey never
ends: “My goal is to build love and togetherness
for people to understand each other well.”
The Stingrey
Style and Substance in the
World of Body-Building
By Gary Stevens
The Suit Staff Writer
In Hawaii, the sport of body-building and the name
Rey “Stingrey” Ronquilio are synonymous. For eleven
years in a row, he was a top-five competitor in the
national bodybuilding arena; he won the Masters
Nationals in 2002 in the Mr. USA contest in 2003.
Rey Ronquilio started as a personal trainer in
1991. “Then I got into body-building, and decided
right away that I wanted to be ‘the guy’ in Hawaii,”
he said in his interview with the Suit Magazine. It
didn’t take him long to become that guy. In only his
second contest, Ronquilio became nationally qualified
by winning his lightweight class at the Hawaiian
Island Championships, and began an 11-year streak
of competitive success. That experience was later
channeled into Vital Fitness, an enterprise Ronquilio
established to help people develop their physiques,
while at the same time enriching their overall lifestyle.
“Vital Fitness is a company that focuses on body
transformations as a way to stay grounded,” he said.
Workouts can be supervised on a one-on-one basis,
or they can be learned via on-line training. A short,
well-structured routine can be incorporated into a
person’s daily lifestyle and have amazing results, or
intensive training can help someone realize a dream of
competing in body-building events and other athletic
competitions. His approach to training results in a
lowered body-fat ratio, enhanced sports performance,
and an overall feeling of wellness.
Always the showman, Ronquilio
envisioned and is now producing
The Stingrey Classic, an annual
national qualifier in Hawaii.
It gives bodybuilding, fitness,
figure, and bikini competitors an
opportunity to compete against the
best in the nation if they win their
division in this prestigious event.
As an entrepreneur, Ronquilio has
diversified his sources of revenue
even further. In addition to Vital
Fitness and the Stingrey Classic,
his next goal is to produce a line of
clothing with his wife, Pebblz. There
is also a Junior Stingrey Classic for
kids between 8 and 19 years old. “I
want to get kids away from sitting
at computers and television, and get
them more into fitness,” he explained
In addition, his knowledge in nutrition
has also enabled him to market a
line of U.S.P. Labs supplements.
The key to his success, he said, is “finding something
you really enjoy. I never have to go to ‘work’. It’s fun.”
That attitude, combined with an emphasis on family
and a keen interest in the connection between physical
fitness and emotional health, has enabled Rey “Stingrey”
Ronquilio to succeed in a very competitive environment.
And he wants to help others achieve their dreams.
2010 DECEMBER THE SUIT 85
 Pieces of History
Authentic Artifacts at
the RR Auction House
By James Partridge
Suit Staff Writer

When the Nazis began deporting Jews from Hungary

in 1944, a Swedish diplomat in Budapest, Raoul Gustav
Wallenberg, issued fake Swedish passports to Hungarian
refugees, helping them to escape Nazi persecution. One
of those passports ended up traveling – quite likely in
the possession of one of those expatriated Hungarians
– to the US, where it eventually landed at the offices
of Bobby Livingston. In April 2009, his company
auctioned the document in April 2009, and the valuable
memento was sold to a happy collector for $13,700.

Rare historical documents like the Wallenberg passports

make history come alive, connecting collectors with the
past and shedding new light on great historical events.
That’s why Livingston, Vice-President of Sales and
Marketing at RR Auction, is so passionate about his work.

Based in Amherst, New Hampshire, RR is a mid-

sized auction house that, each year, registers up
to $10 million in sales of historical documents
and autographs, and operates an online auction
system that attracts 6,000 visitors each week.

The business started out in 1980, Livingston

recalls, “as a one-man, cut-and-paste operation
on a typewriter.” RR Auction’s founder and current
owner, Bob Eaton, had borrowed money from his
grandmother to purchase a collection of artifacts
from a local collector. Incidentally, that lot included
a 1903 World Series program, which Eaton still
owns; today, that program is worth over $100,000.

Since that lucky first acquisition, Eaton’s business

has enjoyed steady growth and an excellent
reputation among collectors. That’s because the small
company’s employees truly care about their work;
they’re excited about the history and authenticity
of all the artifacts featured in their catalog.

86 THE SUIT DECEMBER 2010

 “We get to read famous dead people’s letters,” jokes
Livingston. He’s excited about an upcoming project; RR
will auction off a collection of objects from NASA space
missions. “This is fun stuff to have, collect, and touch,”
Livingston adds, further noting that RR’s clients will
appreciate the items because NASA’s space program
was “a crowning achievement of humanity, and
people who witnessed that find it to be meaningful.”
But the auction house business is not without
the risk of loss, mostly due to forgeries and naive
investments. Counterfeit artifacts are everywhere,
warns Livingston. “If you walk into a shopping mall
and see a wall covered in signed Beatles or Led
Zeppelin albums, be very skeptical,” he warns, duly
noting that “Maintaining an inventory of authentic,
rare signed Beatles’ albums is next to impossible.”
In order to prevent forgeries from slipping into
their catalog and ensuring that their clients’ money
is well-spent, RR Auction regularly engages the
services of expert third-party authenticators, like
Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA), a large public
corporation. Because PSA has no financial interest in
the sale of the items it evaluates, its authentication
is trustworthy. RR Auction regularly enlists the
assistance of PSA and similar companies so that
customers can be assured of an item’s authenticity.
“Customers need to buy from a reputable dealer,”
says Livingston. He supports the use of third-
party verification so that customers can feel secure.
“We want to be double and triple sure!” That
dedication to accuracy keeps the clients coming back.
But there’s another advantage to efforts in
verification – legitimized pieces sell for much more.
The same item can go for two vastly different
sums, depending on whether or not it has been
thoroughly examined and verified. For example, an
autographed photograph of Albert Einstein once sold
for $6,000 at an auction without an independent
authentication process. Six weeks later, RR Auctions
sold it for $75,000 – after the photo had been expertly
scrutinized by outside parties and the auction house
had translated a message Einstein had written on it.
“You can turn a quick profit by [relying on] people
with specialized knowledge; we just pay them
for their expert opinion,” explains Livingston.
Since the increased sales price on auction day
exceeds the cost of authentication, this practice is
a very smart business move – one of many reasons
RR Auction’s customers are loyal to the company.
The company’s website (www.rrauction.
com) functions as an extension of itsNew
Hampshireauction house. On it, customers can
peruse pages and pages of rare autographs, historical
mementos, and authentic official documents.
Whether in person or via the internet, collectors can
be sure that RR Auction’s items are the real deal.
Meanwhile, Bob Eaton is always looking for new pieces
to pass on – artifacts like the Wallenberg passports and
souvenirs from the space race are about more than
just turning a profit. Such objects serve as links to the
past, and collectors and auctioneers alike do share in
the excitement of handling a genuine piece of history.
RRAuction Official Time: Jan 1 2011 11:50:42 AM
Thirty Minute Rule Begins: The Evening of January
12th at 7 PM ET
Phone: +1 (603) 732-4280 | Fax: +1 (603) 732-4288
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visit our browser upgrade page.
2010 DECEMBER THE SUIT 87
 Novus
by Catherine Park Still Stylish after 35 Years
On sunny Roosevelt Avenue in San Juan, visitors
and natives of Puerto Rico peruse trendy accessories
in a brightly lit retail store brimming with fashionable
shoes and purses. This is just one location of Novus
Inc., an accessories company that is growing its brand
despite a rough economy. Based in the city of Guaynabo,
Novus has been running for over 35 years. It’s recently
added an online store, allowing the business to expand
beyond its physical borders. The Suit spoke with
Irma Perez-Labiosa, the company’s Chief Financial
Officer, to learn more about the company’s growth.
Novus was founded in 1973 by the current president,
Carlos Caspellon. He chose the name ‘Novus’—
Latin for ‘new’—because it reflects the company’s
aim to offer the most recent, cutting-edge trends.
Prior to the foundation of the company, Caspellon
had an interest in men’s fashion; although he was
an accountant, he often worked with shoe tailors in
Puerto Rico. He eventually decided to create his own
fashion retail business in Puerto Rico, Perez-Labiosa
said. He opened the first store at the Santa Maria
Shopping Center in the city of Ponce, and imported
shoes from countries such as Spain and Italy. He also
purchased La Favorita, an old chain store still popular
in Puerto Rico. Since then, the company has acquired
other stores including Bakers, and Naturalizer.
Ownership remains with Caspellon and his
kin. “It’s a family concept store,” Perez-Labiosa
said. His son and daughter have taken interest
in the business; it seems they’ve inherited
Caspellon’s passion for selling fashion goods.
Selling fashion accessories for both men and women,
Novus offers a wide variety of shoes and handbags.
The company’s primary customers are in Puerto Rico,
where 68 of its stores are located, explained Perez-
Labiosa. But with the recent launch of its online store,
the company was able to extend its customer base
to US cities with large Latin-American populations.
“We have a lot of people that are communicating
with us, mostly our Latin customers in the cities like
Miami, Orlando, and Houston,” Perez-Labiosa said.
88 THE SUIT DECEMBER 2010
Using surveys at their online store, the company
collects basic statistics about their customer base.
With this information, the company locates areas
containing significant numbers of customers who
purchase their products through the Internet.
So far, one of the things they’ve learned us that
Novus’s sales are significantly affected by cultural
differences between Puerto Rico and the US. Non-
Hispanic customers do place orders from the
company, but these sales are limited. Differing
concepts of fashion sometimes prevent the company
from establishing a wider and more diverse
network of customers, explains Perez-Labiosa.
“American people like our shoes, but [our concept] of
fashion is not accepted by everyone,” she says. “When
we dress for work, for example, we [incorporate] more
fashion into our look than American people do.”
The online website may widen Novus’s existing
customer base, and that would be a welcome change,
Perez-Labiosa said. In the meantime, business remains
steady, and Novus can focus on marketing its products
to a consumer base that is already familiar to them.
As Novus has grown, it has certainly seen some
ups and downs. Recently, external factors have
forced Novus to make various adjustments, Perez-
Labiosa said. The Puerto Rican economy experienced
a downturn, and that affected the company. But
flexibility was the company’s key to survival.
“2006 was our worst year,” remembers Perez-
Labiosa. “We [had to make] a lot of adjustments.”
Novus Inc. was forced to shut down stores that did not
generate enough revenue and cut down employment.
The company also implemented a new purchasing
system and regulated their expenses and inventory.
But now the worst is over, and with the establishment
of an online store, Novus is using technology to
expand their customer base. The company is growing
while staying true to its commitment to new fashions,
and Perez-Labiosa is optimistic about the future.
“We work hard,” she notes proudly. “We have
enthusiasm.”
 Lall and Company Ltd.

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