Hartford Business Journal

22 HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | MAY 29, 2023 BioSafe executives and siblings include (from left) Michael Larose, CEO Lauren Crane, and Matthew Larose. PHOTO | HARRIET JONES 'Complete The Mission' Following untimely death of patriarch and co-founder, family-run BioSafe's next generation thrust into leadership By Harriet Jones Hartford Business Journal Contributor I t wasn't supposed to be Rob Larose's time. "My dad was never going to retire," said his daughter Lauren Crane. "We all thought for sure that if anything was going to happen, he'd have at least 10, 15 years still. And he thought that way too. I mean, none of us were expecting this." Just a day after attending a big family birthday celebration for his son and granddaughter one weekend last September, Larose died peacefully in his sleep, at age 64. He was the president and CEO of BioSafe Systems, a 25-year-old, family-run chemical company headquartered in East Hartford that he had founded with his father, Rene Larose. His untimely death left Crane and her brothers Matt and Mike Larose — all executives at BioSafe, which has more than 70 employees — with more than just their own personal grief to process. "He passed on Sunday and that Monday we just said, 'We have to go to work,'" recalled Crane. "We have to go talk to everybody and make sure everyone's comforted and knows that we're going to keep the business going. He was like a dad to a lot of people here." On top of all that came another pressing issue that couldn't wait: There was no company succes- sion plan. "Because my dad was never going to give up control, it really wasn't talked about, it wasn't planned," said Crane. So, it was left to the three siblings to figure it out. "We sat in the conference room there and everyone was like, someone has to be the leader," said Crane. "He'd be very proud if he saw the way it was handled," said her brother, Mike Larose. "We decided it as a group," added the third sibling, Matt Larose. And that was how Crane — at 38, the middle child of the three — became president and CEO of BioSafe. According to the numbers, it's a crisis that has the potential to happen in many family businesses in Connecticut and beyond. Only 27% of U.S. family busi- nesses have a fully structured succession plan, according to a recent survey by the First Bank Center for Family-Owned Busi- nesses, a privately-owned bank. Similarly, a recently conducted Connecticut Business & Industry Association survey found that 27% of family businesses in the state have a comprehensive succession plan. Successful formula BioSafe's origins date back to the 1990s, when the siblings' grandfa- ther, Rene Larose was tinkering with a chemical formula he hoped could be used as a non-toxic pesticide and disinfectant. A microbiologist with degrees from UConn and UMass, Larose had a long career as a laboratory director and research virologist at poultry breeder Arbor Acres in Glastonbury. "My grandpa's job," Crane said, "was making sure that they stayed clean and healthy and free of infection and disease. And so, that's where he came up with the idea of using" peroxyacetic acid, or PAA. PAA is essentially a combination of hydrogen peroxide and acetic acid or vinegar, both common and safe household chemicals. It can kill pests, fungi and bacteria on contact, and then breaks down swiftly, leaving no chemical residue behind. The mixture had been around since the 1970s, and previously used as a hard-surface disinfectant, but never before for the types of applications Rene and his son Rob developed, notably to battle plant diseases in the greenhouse industry. "Where BioSafe's milestone is, or what made it a revolutionary company, is that no one had ever taken this chemistry and applied it to plant tissue, or a lot of the applications we now use it for," said Mike Larose. Its lack of toxic residues appealed to Rob Larose's personal focus on environmental responsibility. "My father emphasized to us a lot that he wanted our company to be all about sustainability," said Matt Larose. "It's not something that we just dabble in, that's what we do." While Rene had the chemistry expertise, Rob had the business acumen to recognize they had come AT A GLANCE Company: BioSafe Systems Industry: Biological pesticides Top Executive: Lauren Crane, CEO HQ: 2 Meadow St., East Hartford Website: biosafesystems.com Contact: 888-273-3088

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