Hartford Business Journal

34 Hartford Business Journal • April 20, 2020 • www.HartfordBusiness.com 2020 POWER 50 managing mem- ber. Benjamin Schlossberg and his realty firm have also become power players, after buying up hun- dreds of millions of dollars in real estate down- town — includ- ing major class A office towers — over the past six years or so, becoming the center city's most dominant landlord. Shel- bourne Global is also leading a $100-million redevelopment of Pratt Street. Shana Schlossberg's latest venture, "Upward Living," includes the cre- ation of 32 units of "co-living" apart- ments downtown intended to provide short-term housing for participants in Upward's accelerator program. Matt Ritter and Thomas Ritter Connecticut doesn't have many political dynasties, but the Ritter family is high up the list. Rep. Matt Ritter (D- Hartford) became House majority leader in 2016 and is currently viewed as a frontrunner to be- come House speaker in 2021, as long as Democrats manage to maintain control of the chamber (a likely scenario). If and when that happens, Ritter, a partner at Shipman & Goodwin who specializes in public issues, would be of- ficially filling the shoes of his father, Thomas Ritter, who did the same when he won his father's (George Ritter) House seat in 1980. (George Ritter died in 2010.) Thomas Ritter served in the House for 18 years, the final six as House speaker. He's since turned to a more lucrative profession: Lobbying for Brown Rudnick. Thomas Ritter, who is married to Appellate Court Judge Christine Keller, has also been a UConn trustee since 2003, recently serving as its interim chairman. Melissa McCaw When it's time to publicly pres- ent the budget of the state's most powerful politician, Melissa McCaw stands and delivers. As secretary of the Office of Policy and Management, McCaw is involved in major policy and fiscal decisions on behalf of the governor that affect powerful inter- ests, including those of the business community. For example, OPM helps the governor decide whether his budget proposal will honor previ- ously pledged tax breaks. The agency also played a key role in negotiating a high-stakes tax settlement late last year with Connecticut hospitals that sued the state over a provider tax, seeking as much as $4 billion. McCaw draws on 18 years of finance and operations experience in government and education. As Hartford's chief financial officer from 2016 to 2018, she helped Mayor Luke Bronin guide the city through a debt restructuring and cost-cutting pro- cess that staved off bankruptcy. David Lehman When Gov. Ned Lamont appointed David Lehman commissioner of the state Department of Economic and Community Development many questioned the former Goldman Sachs investment banker's job credentials. But since taking office in 2019, Lehman has gotten mostly positive reviews from the business commu- nity. More importantly, he's helping reshape the state's economic-develop- ment strategy. He's set an ambitious agenda in 2020 to help launch a new economic-development plan for the state, reform Connecticut's economic- incentives playbook, and focus on workforce development, Opportunity Zones and regulatory reform. However, some of that work is now on hold as Lehman responds to businesses' needs during the coronavirus pandemic. He quickly launched a $25-million bridge loan program in March that was oversubscribed in a day's time, forc- ing the state to double the available funding. Lehman has helped redefine a new, deeper relationship between his agency and its economic- and market-research affiliate, the Con- necticut Economic Resource Center (CERC). In 2019, Lehman and others worked to restructure CERC's board of directors and give it a larger role in business retention and recruit- ment on behalf of the state. Rodney Butler Rodney Butler is the jack-of-all- trades executive for Foxwoods Resort Casino, which has been at the center of a contentious debate over who should have rights to sports bet- ting and internet gam- bling in Connecticut. In 2018, Butler, the affable chairman of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, stepped in as Foxwoods' interim CEO after the sudden death of Felix Rappaport. The former UConn football player turned casino executive in recent years has been inti- mately involved in negotiating a wide-ranging gambling agreement with former Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and Gov. Ned Lamont's administra- tion as gaming competition heats up across the region. In March, Butler and Lamont were at odds over the governor's support of a sports betting bill that would allow the CT Lottery Corp. and another vendor — in addition to Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun — to participate in bookmaking. The legislative session ended early this year because of the coronavirus pandemic, so the bill died but the is- sue won't be going away for long. Jill Hummel Hartford is the insurance capital of the world, as its boosters like to say, and when it comes to winning health insurance business from larger Connecticut companies, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, led by president and general manager Jill Hummel, stands alone. Wallingford-based Anthem had just shy of 897,000 Connecticut custom- ers enrolled in its fully and self-insured prod- ucts as of the latest 2018 data compiled by the Connecticut In- surance Depart- ment. That 46% market share is more than its next two biggest competitors — Aetna and Cigna — combined, and it's largely thanks to Anthem's dominant status admin- istering self-insured health benefits for "large groups" (companies with 50-plus employees). Hummel, who co-chairs the Gov- ernor's Prevention Partnership with Gov. Ned Lamont, departed competi- tor UnitedHealthcare in 2007 to join Anthem, and she assumed her cur- rent leadership role in 2014, taking on oversight of sales, account manage- ment, provider relations, contracting and underwriting. That same year, Connecticut's Affordable Care Act ex- change, Access Health CT, launched. Under Hummel, Anthem has built goodwill by remaining loyal to its Access Health products, even as the exchange saw carrier participation dwindle. Early this year, Hummel bested her old employer in a competitive bid to run a state employee plan covering 210,000 lives. State Comp- troller Kevin Lembo cited Anthem's "willingness to collaborate" as a reason for selecting the company. Joanne Berger-Sweeney Trinity College President Joanne Berger-Sweeney has been approach- ing her leadership role with the experimental mindset of a scientist. It makes sense since she's a trained neurophysi- ologist who's contributed to more than 60 scientific publications. As colleges and universities na- tionwide face declining enrollment, and some public skepticism about 26 25 27 28 24 23 Shana Schlossberg, Founder and CEO, Upward David Lehman, Commissioner, State Department of Economic and Community Development Rodney Butler, Chairman, Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation Melissa McCaw, Secretary of the Office of Policy and Management Rep. Matt Ritter (D-Hartford) Benjamin Schlossberg, Managing Member, Shelbourne Global LLC Jill Hummel, President and General Manager, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield Thomas Ritter, Lobbyist, Brown Rudnick

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