Hartford Business Journal Special Editions

56 Hartford Business Journal • November 26, 2012 www.HartfordBusiness.com Celebrating 20 Years of Business News PEOPLE the ted cArroll Ted Carroll, longtime president of Leadership Greater Hartford, was described in an Oct. 3, 2011 Hartford Business Journal profile as "an evangelist for Hartford" who has made the region a better place, one leader at a time. "He has a missionary personality," explained John Rathgaber, presi- dent and CEO of the Connecticut Business & Industry Association. Carroll, according to Rathgaber, has a special gift that can make the assets and challenges of Hartford intriguing to folks who might ordi- narily treat the city as a place you "drive in and out of to go to work." Carroll has headed the group -- a nonprofit community leader- ship training group for people in business, government and nonprofit organizations -- since 1986. Before that he was executive director of Southend Community Services, a neighborhood social service agency in Hartford, for five years. Carroll has become an international expert on leadership training, acting as a trainer in places like Canada and Brazil, as well as across the United States. cheryl chAse Cheryl Chase Freedman has been known as much for her busi- ness skills in the family business, Chase Enterprises, as she has for her philanthropy. Executive vice president for Chase Enterprises, a real estate devel- opment firm with ties all over the world, Chase has won acclaim for her nonprofit work as well. She was chairman of the Connecticut Sci- ence Center's Board of Trustees when the museum faced opposition for state funding from Gov. Rell, who wanted to give the center less than the Democrat-controlled General Assembly. Chase prevailed in getting the necessary state assistance levels to get the museum opened in the style it felt it needed. Kenneth decKo Kenneth Decko served as president of the Connecticut Business and Industry Association for 26 years and saw the state's economy transition from 1980 to 2006. "When I started at CBIA, Connecticut's economy was the envy of the nation," he wrote in a farewell message to the CBIA's 10,000 members. "We had major defense plants and other large manufacturing facil- ities. We were the insurance capital of the nation. And we had many Fortune 500 companies, whose CEOs often hailed from our state." Decko began his career as an attorney with the CBIA's predeces- sor, the Manufacturing Association of Connecticut, which merged with the state Chamber of Commerce. He was an advocate of the state's unpopular income tax that lowered the sales tax rate and cut corporate taxes. roBert FiondellA Robert Fiondella entered the Phoenix Mutual Life Insurance Company after completing the UConn School of Law in 1968. He rose through the ranks and became president of the company in 1987. While at the helm, he steered the company into a merger in 1992 that formed Phoenix Home Life Mutual Insurance Co. He would be elected chairman, principal and CEO in 1994; positions he held until his 2001 retirement. Fiondella was a key player in the development of Adri- aen's Landing, an honorary chairman of the Canon GHO Golf Tournament (now known as the Travelers Champi- onship), and chairman of the successful effort to build the Eastern Regional Little League Center in his home- town of Bristol. He was also instrumental in Connecti- cut Public Television broadcasting the UConn Women Husky basketball games. Jerry FrAnKlin As Connecticut Public Broadcasting celebrated its 50th anniversary in October, president and CEO Jerry Franklin posted a message about prominent roles the public broadcasting station had played in national TV events, including the purple dinosaur that people either love or hate, Barney. The series was introduced to the national stage by CPTV in 1992. Franklin was at the helm for that as well as the broad- cast of UConn Women's Basketball, another first for public television (an association that lasted from 1994 to 2012). Franklin, who became president and CEO in 1985, took CPTV, at the time somewhat derogatorily called Ted Carroll guides a generation of leaders at Leadership Hartford. Kenneth Decko was president of CBIA from 1980 to 2006. Jerry Franklin accepts an award in a photo from March 22, 1999. P H O T O S / S T E V E L A S C H E V E R

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