Mainebiz

V O L . X X I N O. I V F E B R UA R Y 2 3 , 2 0 1 5 6 FairPoint strike was nation's largest in 2014 FairPoint Communications' contract dispute isn't over, but it ranked as last year's largest, continuously running work stoppage in the country, accord- ing to a new federal report. e Bangor Daily News reported that the strike, which began last October, accounted for , idle workdays from , workers. at's almost of the total , idle workdays caused last year by the nation's larger work stop- pages. e newspaper noted that the FairPoint strike, which started over contract disputes, caused service issues in Maine, including a large increase in landline service repair calls that weren't fixed within hours. Student business contest expands to other schools e UMaine Business Challenge, the state's largest student entrepre- neurship competition, is no longer limited to Maine's public universities. e competition's organizers recently said that students at all of Maine's higher education institutions looking to pitch their own business ideas are eligible. e competition will award a total of , in cash and consult- ing prizes, including free entry into the Maine Center for Entrepreneurial Development's "Top Gun" program. Home Depot to hire 450 in Maine Home Depot has announced that it plans to hire employees across its stores in Maine. e home- improvement retail giant said it will hire , workers nationwide to prepare for spring, its busiest sales season. It is looking for permanent part-time and seasonal employees in sales, cashier, operations and online order-fulfillment positions. Radio Shack closing 13 Maine stores Radio Shack will close Maine stores after filing for Chapter bankruptcy in early February. e stores, which Radio Shack said were marked among , locations for closure because of poor performance, are expected to close in three waves, with the final closures slated for the end of March. Impacted stores are in South Portland, Bangor, Brunswick, Topsham, Wells, Augusta, Standish, Oxford, Portland and Machias. Maine medical marijuana sales reach $16M Medical marijuana sales in Maine increased to more than million in , according to data from Maine Revenue Services. e Lewiston Sun Journal reported that the sales from Maine's eight dispen- saries generated , in sales tax last year. Medical marijuana generated . million in sales and , in sales tax for . e numbers don't include figures from the state's , licensed caregivers. N O T E W O R T H Y S T A T E W I D E The National Endowment for the Arts awarded a total of $190,000 in grant funding to organizations in Maine that foster artistic creativity and innova- tion in their communities including Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture Inc., $35,000; President and Trustees of Bates College, two separate awards of $30,000; Alice James Poetry Cooperative Inc., $25,000; Bangor Folk Festival and Camden International Film Festival, $20,000; and Portland Stage Co., Maine Film Center and Maine Fiberarts, $10,000 each. Nova Star ferry gets new $13M subsidy e Nova Star Cruises ferry, which underperformed in its first season of service between Portland and Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, has received another subsidy and will return this year. e Portland Press Herald reported that Nova Star is receiving million (Canadian) from Nova Scotia's provincial government, but on the expectation that Maine will provide its own million line of credit this year. Gov. Paul LePage has previously said he would make good on his promise to provide the funds, saying last fall that he will draft legis- lation this session. Nova Star's second season will span from June to Oct. , shorter than its inaugural season, which began a month earlier and was ended three weeks earlier. B U S I N E S S M A I N E Business news from around the state S T A T E W I D E S O U T H E R N Former CEO at FHC will spearhead global sales at Biovation Keri Seitz, former CEO at FHC Inc., has been hired by Boothbay-based Biovation to help take its growth to the "next stage." Seitz will serve as vice president of sales and customer relations, with a focus on global sales, said Anania & Associates Investment Company LLC, the Windham-based private equity rm that owns Biovation. "I am incredibly excited that Keri has joined our team and will lead our tac- tical and strategic global sales efforts," Kerem Durdag, Biovation's CEO, said in a prepared statement. "During the last several years we have engaged with customers who are leaders in their market sectors, and now plan to leverage those relationships and applicable products to the larger marketplace." He added: "Keri is the right person to lead us in our next stage of growth given her deep experience in delivering rapid revenue growth and increasing market share through highly effective, results-oriented sales practices." Seitz was named to Mainebiz's Next List in 2012 for her leadership as CEO of Bowdoin-based FHC, a maker of precision instruments and devices for brain surgery, for which she helped grow revenue by nearly 40% and quadruple the company's net operating prot. Sietz left FHC in August 2014. "FHC is a great organization with wonderful products and people and I really enjoyed them," she said in a recent phone interview with Mainebiz. "I just felt it was time for me to nd something new, and I know they have a great team to [move] forward." At Biovation, Seitz will be tasked with growing and managing the company's sales organization, along with leading its partner and distributor network and following through with its growth plans. "They have some really amazing technology," Seitz said of Biovation, which makes nonwoven ber products with advanced polylactic acid, or PLA, for packaging, infection control, advanced wound care, hygiene and other specialty applications. She said her current focus is promoting global sales of Biovation's BioArmour Blood Pressure Cuff Shield, a medical device that has been cleared for distribution in Europe and is awaiting approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for domestic sales. The product is meant to help prevent the transmission of bacteria. Seitz said she is also working on the development of other product lines, including DryRight, a boot-drying product that is being tested by the U.S. Marine Corps under a $978,000 contract. The product is now being prepared for the commercial market, she said. "This technology [PLA] has a lot of applications across many different busi- ness functions and markets," she said. "It feels like the sky is the limit." — P H O T O / T I M G R E E N WAY Keri Seitz in a le photo from 2012, when she was serving as CEO of Bowdoin neuroscience rm FHC Inc. She was recently hired by Boothbay-based Biovation as its vice president of sales and customer relations.

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