Hartford Business Journal

28 Hartford Business Journal | February 22, 2021 | HartfordBusiness.com 2021 POWER 50 S everal months into the worst pandemic the country has seen in a century, longtime aerospace executive Chris DiPentima decided to switch careers, becoming CEO of Connecticut's largest business lobby. The Connecticut Business & Chris DiPentima Thomas Katsouleas 7 8 Industry Association (CBIA) has long pushed back against new mandates on employers, whether it's minimum wage hikes or higher taxes, and in favor of more funding and less regulation for key industry sectors like manufacturing and insurance. CBIA has long been viewed as aligning with the GOP, but DiPentima, a Republican who is succeeding former leader Joe Brennan, is hoping to shift that perception, which will be particularly important in the coming two years since Democrats hold large majorities in the state legislature. Since starting his new role, DiPentima has rejiggered CBIA's lobbying team and is overseeing a marketing and messaging effort that plays up the importance of employers in their communities. Like all other interest groups, CBIA's lobbying team will face unique challenges this year, because they and the public are not allowed to enter the Capitol, at least for the next few months, due to COVID-19. The remote session is expected to test the robustness of CBIA's contacts inside the Capitol as well as its ability to adapt to difficult conditions. State budget deficit projections for the near term have been mostly improving, reducing the threat of new tax hikes, but a $2.5 billion hole lies ahead after this fiscal year. Some of the legislature's more progressive members are pushing for policies CBIA opposes, including a public health insurance option, statewide property tax and capital gains surcharge. DiPentima appears to relish that he's on the hot seat. When the dust settles in June (or later, if there is a special session), CBIA's board and membership will evaluate their new leader's performance. A s president of UConn, Thomas Katsouleas leads the state's flagship public research university, and is a key figure in the state's efforts to boost workforce and entrepreneurship. When Katsouleas became UConn's president in 2019, he was mostly concerned with significantly ramping up the school's research funding (to $500 million a year over the next decade), boosting innovation and entrepreneurship initiatives and returning UConn athletics' to the Big East conference. Then COVID-19 hit. The pandemic last spring forced UConn to close its campuses, which contributed to a multimillion-dollar budget shortfall — mostly due to evaporating housing and dining service revenues. However, UConn reopened its campuses last fall and has kept on-campus COVID transmission rates lower than many similarly-sized institutions across the country, thanks to strict restrictions related to social distancing, mask- wearing and testing for students and faculty. The pandemic and revenue downturn have forced Katsouleas to make some difficult cost-cutting decisions, including canceling the 2020 football season, and cutting several sports programs. UConn also paused a program Katsouleas started that would have provided last-dollar tuition funding for students whose parents earn under $50,000. However, the school made some significant strides toward Katsouleas' goals of expanding innovation and entrepreneurship last year, despite COVID's challenges. For example, new research awards at UConn and UConn Health reached $286 million in fiscal year 2020, a 7% increase over the previous year, Katsouleas said. UConn and UConn Health faculty also spent nearly $250 million in expenditures for research and other sponsored activity, the highest combined annual amount in the school's history. Meantime, startup companies in UConn's Technology Incubation Program (TIP) in Farmington and Storrs raised a record $420 million in 2020, Katsouleas said. That nearly equals funding TIP companies raised over the previous four years combined.

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