SBA Emerging Leaders initiative graduates its latest class

SYRACUSE — Representatives from more than a dozen local companies graduated from this year’s Emerging Leaders initiative (formerly known as e200), a program of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA).

The agency honored the business leaders in a ceremony held Nov. 6 at Gateway Center at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY-ESF).

The program targets C-level executives who can participate if their firms have been in business for at least three years, generate between $400,000 and $10 million in revenue per year, and have at least one employee, says Bernard J. Paprocki, director, the SBA Syracuse district office.

“So, you’ve got companies that are already established that are really looking at their business and trying to take it to a new level … either to expand their markets, increase revenues, or maybe even try to look at a different way of operating more efficiently,” Paprocki says.

The program, which the SBA describes as “intense,” provides more than 40 hours of advanced-management training.

Participants met every two weeks at the Syracuse Tech Garden, and the classes lasted “several hours,” Paprocki says.

“… in between that time, there’s a lot of homework and reading activity that goes on, and a lot interaction between the participants as well,” he adds.

The most recent session started in April. John Liddy, the Tech Garden entrepreneur in residence, handled the instruction, and participants earned an e200 graduation certificate, Paprocki says.

The course teaches that, at some point, a company executive needs to step away and work “on” the business versus “in” the business, says Craig Mead, general manager and managing member at FIBERONE, LLC, who was among this year’s course participants.

“We’re never totally out of the business, but really we’ve got to just focus on planning for the future and planning our growth and strategy versus being bogged down in the day-to-day operations,” says Mead.

In addition, the course taught that business executives will eventually reach a “realization” that they need to delegate more responsibility to their staff, Mead adds.

FIBERONE, LLC is a DeWitt–based manufacturer of fiber-optic products for communications and data-network service providers. The company specializes in products that include fiber-optic cable assemblies, patch panels, and optical components needed for today’s high-speed communication networks.

Besides FIBERONE’s Mead, graduates included Eileen Brophy, president of Salina–based Brophy Services, Inc.; Andrew DiLaura, sales manager at DeWitt–based CADimensions, Inc.; Peter Hess, CEO of Corso’s Cookies of Geddes; Luke Behm, owner of Dart Computer Solutions of Camillus; Douglas Waterbury, owner of Sterling, N.Y. –based Empire Attractions, LLC; Laura Ranger, owner and partner at Losi & Ranger, CPAs, PLLC of Clay.

The graduates also included Lauris Rigdon, owner of Onondaga Physical Therapy, LLC of Baldwinsville; Lawrence Pidgeon, president of Pidgeon, Inc. of Auburn, which does business as Pidgeon Roofing & Renovations; Malcolm Smith, president of Smith Interiors, Ltd. Scandinavian & Contemporary Furniture of DeWitt; Charles Scholl, CEO at Standard Insulating Co., Inc. of Marcy; Caprice Zimmer, director of operations at the Sterling Performing Arts Center; and Andy Picco, owner of Salina–based Sustainable Office Solutions, LLC.

The SBA Syracuse district office collaborated with several organizations on the initiative, include CenterState CEO; the Central New York Technology Development Organization, Inc. (CNY TDO); the Syracuse Department of Neighborhood and Business Development; the Downtown Committee of Syracuse, Inc.; the Manufacturers Association of Central New York; the Small Business Development Center at Onondaga Community College; SUNY-ESF; Syracuse SCORE; Syracuse University (SU); the Falcone Center for Entrepreneurship at SU’s Martin J. Whitman School of Management; the Syracuse Tech Garden; and the WISE Women’s Business Center.

Syracuse is one of 17 participating cities nationwide. The others are Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Fresno, Jacksonville, Los Angeles, Memphis, Minneapolis, New Orleans, Philadelphia, St. Louis, and Youngstown, Ohio.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com