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CALENDAR OF EVENTS

        
 

March 13, 2014

11:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

Cooper Creek Event Center 

 

Click here to register to attend this year's event or call 513.579.3111. The keynote speaker is Austin Allison, co-founder and CEO of DotLoop.com, the fastest growing technology movement in real estate. 

 

Learn more about the awards.

 

11th Annual Ohio Valley Affiliate

 for Life Sciences (OVALS)

 

March 28, 2014

Kingsgate Marriott Conference Center 

  

If you're interested in commercialization of new life sciences technologies, collaboration opportunities and creating economic impact, you don't want to miss this event.  This year's conference will look at Obesity, Diabetes and Metabolic Disease.

 

Click here to register.

 

 

 

Click here to become a member and to register for upcoming events.

  The Blue Ash Business Awards

 Recognizing Companies that Aspire, Achieve and Advance in Blue Ash

What started as an idea to recognize highly successful Blue Ash firms a few years ago became reality in 2012.  That year, the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber organized the first Blue Ash Business Awards.

The Blue Ash Advisory Board formed the idea. The board was established by the 

Chamber a few years ago to recommend ways to keep Blue Ash members engaged. 

ProSource's Tammy McCoy, left, and Kathryn Kendell at last year's Blue Ash Business Awards.  ProSource won the Corporate Community Service Award in 2013.

"We had an office in Blue Ash for several years, but it closed when the Chamber closed when the Chamber consolidated all operations in its downtown location," said Tamara Lang, a program manager at the Chamber. "The board was chartered to keep our Blue Ash members connected, and they have done a wonderful job.  In addition to developing recommendations for educational programs and networking events, they came up with the idea for an awards program, and we made it happen."   

She added, "The City of Blue Ash is unique. Although it's is not very large land-wise, it's the second largest office market in Greater Cincinnati. Blue Ash also has a large number of powerhouse businesses that are growing and creating jobs. The awards are a perfect way to showcase their accomplishments."

Neil Hensley, Director of Economic Development for the City of Blue Ash said, "These awards are highly coveted by our business community. Last year, 235 people attended to congratulate the winners and to network. We anticipate a large crowd again this year." 

Applications and nominations for this year's awards have been received and are currently being reviewed by the Blue Ash Awards Judging Committee.  

The winners will be announced at the awards luncheon on March 13th at Cooper Creek Event Center.  Awards will be given to for-profit companies in the following categories:

• Companies with 1-50 Employees
• Companies with 51-250 Employees
• Companies with 251+ Employees
• Corporate Community Service Award 
• Emerging Business of the Year Award

Flynn & Company and Sheakley are the sponsors of this year's awards. 

Winter 2014 e-Newsletter

  

David Waltz

City Manager 

   

CTI adds nearly 50 jobs in Blue Ash and expands across the globe

CTI Clinical Trial and Consulting Services is a global, privately held, full-service contract research organization that serves 70+ pharmaceutical and biotechnology clients. At the helm is Timothy Schroeder, a former University of Cincinnati College of Medicine professor who co-founded CTI in 1999 with President Lynn Fallon.

 

Timothy Schroeder, CEO of CTI

According to Schroeder, CTI has averaged more than 20 percent annual growth over the last seven years and has 15 locations in North America, Europe and South America. Two of those locations, Warsaw, Poland and Milan, Italy, were added in 2013. CTI plans to expand its global footprint further in 2014 by adding three locations in Eastern Europe, Asia and Latin America.

 

The company has also bolstered its service offerings by acquiring S2 Statistical Solutions, Inc., a Cincinnati-based health outcomes and health economics firm, in 2013, and Community Research in January of this year.  Community Research has three research centers in Greater Cincinnati and conducts clinical trials for new drugs and medical devices.

 

"We added about 75 employees worldwide last year, including several scientists, health economists and statisticians from S2 at our Blue Ash headquarters," Schroeder stated.  He anticipates about the same number of employees will be added this year, not including the 50 employees from the company's recent acquisition of Community Research. CTI currently has a worldwide workforce of nearly 300.

 

CTI's headquarters at 10123 Alliance Road

"As we continue to grow globally, being headquartered in Blue Ash is very advantageous. The central location helps  us recruit and attract talent in Cincinnati, the northern suburbs and Dayton," he said.  "The employees here are also very loyal so our retention rates are much higher than other places in the world. Since the industry is very  competitive, this gives our company an inherent advantage."

 
To learn more about CTI, click here. 

 

Axiom, a Bangalore, India-based global product development and innovation company, opened its North America operations in a small office in Blue Ash in 2009.  The company selected Blue Ash to be close to P&G, which is one of their large U.S.-based clients.

Since that time, Axiom North America has acquired many more clients. 

In addition, in less than five years, the company has grown from just a few employees to 47 and could no longer accommodate its workforce in its small office space.  According to Carol Turchick, Axiom's Director of Sales and Marketing, the company plans to hire more employees, so they began searching for a much larger office. 

"We found the perfect solution in Blue Ash," she stated.  "Our new office at 4370 Creek Road has 17,000 square feet of space, high ceilings, a caf� and lots of areas for collaboration and future growth."  The company will move into its new offices in early February.

Turchick said the space will bring the employees together under one roof so they can collaborate with each other as well as with clients and vendors. She added that there is also enough space for the 40 new mechanical engineers, project managers, packaging specialists, and other employees the company plans to hire over the next few years. 

Workers putting the fniishing touches on Axiom's North American headquarters

When asked why Axiom selected Blue Ash to expand its North American headquarters, Turchick said, "Blue Ash is close to P&G, which is one of our core clients.  We can easily travel to other client locations across the country within a day or less.  We also find the City and its business community to be very supportive and wanted to remain close to Operation Give Back, a nonprofit organization that supports underserved youths in our community.

Axiom will be hosting an open house at its new offices on April 3rd.  Please email Axiom if you are interesting in attending this event.

To learn more about Axiom, click here.

LendKey leases new office space and plans

to continue expanding in Blue Ash

Founded in 2009, LendKey is a New York City-based, privately held, venture capital backed firm that offers cloud-based technology to provide the essential infrastructure for any party to quickly, securely, efficiently, and profitably lend to anyone else. 

Blue Ash resident Raymond Dury became LendKey's Chief Information Officer in 2010. He commuted to New York for the next couple of years, but by 2013, LendKey was running out of office space in New York. The company was growing rapidly and needed to come up with a solution.

Dury already had a solution in mind. He recommended that the company move part of its back-office functions, including servicing, accounting and technology, to Blue Ash.  Since office space is significantly less expensive than New York, the company agreed. Today, Dury is back in Blue Ash with a team of 22 employees, including six who transferred here from New York.

Raymond Dury, CIO of LendKey

 "Blue Ash made good business sense for LendKey. In addition to being less expensive than adding more office space in New York, Blue Ash has a high quality and highly educated workforce so it's easy to find great employees in all categories," Dury said.  He added,  "Our employees who transferred here really enjoy the quality of life and do not miss the long commutes they used to have to the office.  I also like living and working here again and think there's a great relationship between the business and residential communities."

Demand for LendKey's services continues to grow. The company plans to continue to expand its presence in Blue Ash over the next few years and recently leased a larger office space at 4445 Lake Forest Drive which will be ready in March. 

Since the company was founded, LendKey has helped more than 275 lending institutions create compliant programs using its shared  infrastructure that has deployed over $550 million in capital to credit-worthy borrowers. Lendkey's platform is currently used for student loans, student loan refinancing, green home energy loans, and solar lending, and will be expanded to facilitate lending for any lender on any asset class.

 To learn more about LendKey, click here.