Hartford Business Journal

12 Hartford Business Journal • December 18, 2017 • www.HartfordBusiness.com Five We Watched in 2017 cantly," said House, who most recently spent four years as the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority commissioner. "At the same time, Connecticut has made significant progress in cybersecurity defense." That progress includes the state completing its first annual review of utility companies' cybersecurity defenses. Four utilities — Eversource, Avangrid, Connecticut Water and Aquarion — participated in the voluntary and confidential review, which con- cluded in October that the companies' defenses were "adequate." The second review is slated to take place in 2018, and House is urging wireless and telecom providers to participate. Thus far, they have refused, as some fear it may lead to new mandatory state oversight. In July, the state also issued a 35-page House-led strategy that outlined cybersecurity approaches and challenges for five key sec- tors — state government, municipalities, businesses, universities and public-safety agencies. House, who said Connecticut is becoming a leading state on cy- bersecurity matters, called the strategy document "an initial step on a road we must travel." He presented the plan to officials in Estonia — one of four Black Sea nations House and officials from several other states are work- ing with on cybersecurity — and got a good review. That was meaningful because Estonia has beefed up its defenses over the past decade after suffering a series of cyberattacks. "The Estonians thought [our plan] was like theirs," House said. "I was very pleased. Very encouraged." The strategy, which is to be followed up by a more specific action plan, predicts that hackers might attack the power grid to amplify the effects of a hurricane or extreme weather event, and that such an attack could be accompanied by a disinforma- tion campaign on social media and elsewhere. It also notes that governments and companies alike face a persistent shortage of cybersecurity talent. "I think we did the things we promised to do [this year]," House said. "We still have so much more to do." completed and began making the tools available in stores beyond Sears. Most recently, Stanley added its torque to downtown Hartford's efforts to revitalize the city center, announcing plans on Dec. 5 to open an advanced manufacturing center down- town in the second quarter of 2018. The 23,000-square-foot Advanced Manufacturing Center of Excellence at One Consti- tution Plaza will employ about 50 industry professionals. Stanley also will partner with a startup accelerator, Techstars, to launch the Stanley+Techstars Additive Manufacturing Accelerator. The center and accelerator are designed to accelerate what Stanley calls its "global industry 4.0 smart factory" initiative. Industry 4.0 is the "fourth industrial revolution" — the automation of manufacturing that includes the internet of things, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, 3D printing, robotics and advanced materials, the company said. Stanley's accelerator will initially feature 10 additive manufacturing startups. The so-called "Manufactory 4.0" dovetails off Loree's comments last year that Stanley was focused on "becoming one of the world's great innovators" to fuel future growth. Along similar lines, Stanley in July announced the opening of a new innovation cen- ter in Boston dedicated to advancing technological innovation in the company's Stanley Security business. A key component of Stanley's innovation push was the fall hiring of Mark Maybury to the newly created position of chief technology officer, in part to guide technological op- portunities. In August, Stanley announced the grand opening of a state-of-the-art makerspace workshop in Towson, Md. Other 2017 accomplishments included completing Stanley's $1.95 billion acquisition of the Newell Brands tools business, acquiring the Irwin and Lenox brands to extend Stan- ley's reach into the plumbing and electrical trades and adding complementary products to its hand tool and power tool accessories businesses. In August, Stanley announced the grand opening of its Stanley Security North America headquarters in Fishers, Ind. The $16 million, 80,000-square-foot facility consolidated 350 Stanley Security employees from various Greater Indianapolis locations. In October, Stanley announced it would open a new manufacturing facility in Mission, Texas, signing a lease on a roughly 300,000-square-foot facility that will make DeWalt power tool products starting in early 2018. In February, Stanley said it completed the $725 million sale of the majority of its me- chanical security businesses, allowing it to redeploy that capital in more robust growth opportunities. Investors apparently like what they've seen: Stanley's stock in early December was trad- ing almost $50 a share higher than a year ago. "It was actually a story within itself, just about accessibility at major sporting events," said Lynn Ricci, president and CEO of HSC. HSC used its platform to talk about its ALS programs and others, Ricci said. HSC used 2016 Travelers proceeds, which totaled $325,000 out of the $2.8 million the tour- nament raised that year, to hire a fourth neurologist this year, Dr. Sadaf Khorasanizadeh, and other staff. Khorasanizadeh works with ALS and Parkinson's disease patients, the latter grow- ing in number at HSC. Hospital for Special Care also used proceeds to add another ALS medical assistant and therapy staff, and to expand social work services for additional patient support. Tournament proceeds also supported training for other physicians outside HSC, which is working on a fellowship program in neuromuscular disease or neurology to train doc- tors to care for ALS patients in the future. HSC hopes to create a similar fellowship for Parkinson's doctors, in part with a $1.2 mil- lion grant in July from the Maximilian E. & Marion O. Hoffman Foundation Inc. to build a National Parkinson Foundation Center of Excellence. The grant will allow HSC to see more Parkinson's patients. While donors have been gracious, Ricci remains concerned about state Medicaid reim- bursements, which haven't increased in 10 years. About 75 percent of inpatient revenues are tied to Medicaid, but HSC's outpatient revenues come from a broader payer mix, which helps, Ricci said. "Certainly, philanthropy has never been more important," she said. HSC also hopes to gain more support for its autism program, a key focus. It opened an eight- bed inpatient unit in Dec. 2015 and has filled it almost every day since March 2016, she said. HSC can't afford to expand its inpatient unit now, but is looking at the next best thing, a partial hospital program. A program would help people with autism whose condition is too severe for school programs or who cannot be discharged from the inpatient unit because of lack of community support, she said. The partial hospital program, which is getting state support, would be an intensive short-term program to treat patients during the day before returning to their families at night, Ricci said. "The reimbursement in that area at least is reasonable for us to be able to pursue that population and it's also paid for by commercial payers," Ricci said. Hospital for Special Care can start a partial hospital program for about $1 million-plus versus perhaps $15 million-plus for an expanded inpatient unit, she said. HSC also continues to weigh consulting other hospitals on establishing and managing their own autism programs, management agreements that could provide an additional revenue source. Outpatient autism, ALS, Parkinson's and concussion programs contributed to more than 50,000 outpatient visits at HSC this year. HSC expects to expand its brain health services in 2018, including providing more services for Alzheimer's patients. In between managing their exten- sive construction-renovation checklist, Cruickshank said her team implemented new project-management software that, among other things, will allow UConn "to improve our ability to issue change-orders in a timely way.'' Architects and engineers rely on such orders to communicate in the field any alterations to a project's design blueprint. Change-order mixups can delay or add complexity to a project's construction, ultimately impacting its cost. UConn also faces tough funding decisions for its curriculum- and building-project ros- ter for 2018 as a result of the state budget, which cut significant funding to the school that will delay certain projects. Cruickshank Loree House Ricci > Continued from previous page FIVE TO WATCH Look for our special BOOK of 2018 LISTS in our next week!

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