Have you ever met someone who was a natural leader? Someone who inspires you without trying, someone who defines success, someone who brings out the best in you?

In our travels up and down the I-270 corridor, we have met dozens of leaders … people who encompass all the characteristics of leadership. But, we couldn’t write about every one of them, so we picked three—three people, right here in our backyard that personify leadership …

No Ordinary Tea, No Ordinary “Tea”EO

Seth Goldman, CEO of Honest Tea

by Edwards A. Holliday

You could say Seth Goldman was hungry for success. Or more accurately, thirsty.

A runner with an entrepreneurial spirit, Goldman longed to find a thirst-quencher that wasn’t tasteless but was also not too sweet. Enter Barry Nalebluff, a business school professor of Goldman’s whose urge to create a better tea beverage was matched only by Goldman’s. Together the pair launched Honest Tea 12 years ago in Goldman’s Bethesda kitchen where they brewed batch after batch of tea.

Today, Honest Tea has grown from a home-based business to a $70 million global beverage player that Coca-Cola gambled on in 2008 as a minority investor. Goldman’s ready-to-drink beverage concept made Honest Tea a model for gazelle-like growth within what has become a crowded product category. But that wasn’t always the case.

Honest Tea actually filled a void in the marketplace when it first launched, far ahead of today’s competitors, by offering an all natural, low-sugar drink that was made and marketed with a commitment to high standards. The company is committed to using only real tea leaves, compared to most of the tea American companies use, which is actually low-quality dust and fannings left after quality tea had been produced. All Honest Tea products were fully organic-certified by the USDA in 2004.

“When we started, we were so far on the outside of the mainstream beverage society that we were in a very lonely space,” Goldman said. “We focused on healthy drinks and sustainability. Now, the whole industry is moving in our direction. We helped the industry simply by proving such a business model can be viable.”

Goldman’s passion for sustainability and social responsibility extends beyond the product. In addition to recently redesigning the tea’s bottle to use less plastic, Honest Tea has recently tracked its carbon footprint from tea bush through the warehousing process, from electricity used in the leaf-drying process and production lines to the carbon emissions from diesel truck transportation. To offset the estimated 427,000 pounds of carbon dioxide produced during the process, the company has purchased renewable energy credits (RECs), which go directly to funding wind farms.

But Goldman knows how he does business is equally important inside the company as it is outside. Behind every exceptional, long-term growth story, a winning idea, an effective leader and a performing team can be found. As “Tea”EO, Goldman developed all three.

As a leader, Goldman believes in developing people and communicating the organization’s goals and relevant news as the company grows. “You have to make sure that people understand why their work is important and how it relates to the bigger picture,” he said. “There must be a context for what they are doing.”

Making the best use of each individual’s resources and ensuring the best culture ranks high on Goldman’s priority list. Of the current 112 employees, 10 started as interns. Honest Tea is hiring 46 interns this year alone. In addition to conventional methods of communicating with his employees, Goldman writes a regular blog and shares it with his staff before publishing it on the Web.

“With a name like Honest Tea, there has to be something of substance behind the brand, and every employee needs to understand the importance of what our brand represents,” Goldman said. “For example, one of our board members who is the head of an apparel company said, ‘Our customers put our product on their bodies and that is a pretty intimate experience.’ I realized that our customers put our product inside their bodies … talk about intimate.”

A challenge of leadership as a first-time entrepreneur has been determining how decisions are made, and the importance of speed in decision-making to mitigate risk or bring a product to market. “Not everyone we hire can adjust to our rapid product development timelines,” Goldman said. “A person coming from a mega-competitor is used to a 29-week lead time, but we bring a product to market in 6 weeks. Our associates are conditioned to make fast decisions and work differently.”

But Goldman’s evolution as a leader has been fueled more by his personal life than his professional one. After their oldest son was diagnosed with dyslexia, Goldman and his wife came to understand that their son learns differently and sees the world differently. This concept spills into Goldman’s approach to management. Due to this personal experience, he is more aware that not all employees fit into one way of working. Where it makes sense, the company seeks to let the employee do what he or she does best. They embrace a different approach to helping employees be as productive as possible.

For Goldman, being a father of three young boys when he started the company helped him become a better leader. You won’t find him in the office on weekends or late at night. The growth of Honest Tea has afforded him more balance in life, not less.

At 12 years old and going strong, Honest Tea has lasted longer than most small beverage companies. Goldman credits the company’s success to an early jump on the market, his commitment to sustainability and agile flexibility.

“Keeping to our values is the key to our success,” Goldman said. “Take authenticity, for example. Early on, a venture capitalist suggested that we establish a Vermont mailing address because he thought it would be better for the brand image. But that wouldn’t be authentic. And besides, what’s wrong with a beverage company being located in Bethesda? This is our home.”

As a leader in his industry, Goldman has racked up many achievements. His most recent victories include election to the board of the American Beverage Association, being named Ernst & Young’s 2008 Entrepreneur of the Year for the Mid-Atlantic region, winning the investment of Coca-Cola, creating Bethesda Green, a local sustainability initiative that houses a green business incubator for 12 emerging green entrepreneurs, and making the Inc. 500 list of the fastest growing private companies.

Whether it’s his hunger or thirst for success, one thing is certain—Seth Goldman personifies leadership.

Edwards A. Holliday is president of Atlantic Leadership Group, a performance improvement firm focused on developing leadership, business strategy and people productivity improvement. E-mail him at edwards@atlanticleadershipgroup.com.

Actions – Not Just Words

Sue Hecht, Acting CEO of Heartly House and Maryland Delegate for Frederick County (District 3A)

by Rachael Shankle

When Sue Hecht saw that domestic violence laws weren’t strong enough to protect victims and punish offenders, she did more than complain to her local delegate. She became one.

Nearly 25 years ago, as the executive director of Frederick’s Heartly House, a nonprofit organization that serves victims and survivors of domestic violence, she collaborated with social services and city police to create The Family Violence Council, the first task force of its kind in the state of Maryland. The council soon discovered that domestic violence laws fell short. “There was simply not enough legislative support for these issues at the time,” said Hecht. “We were enraged, empowered, re-energized, and we decided if we couldn’t educate these legislators then we were going to replace them.”

And that’s exactly what she did—winning a seat in the Maryland House of Delegates in 1994. “It just sort of happened amidst my advocating against domestic violence on behalf of Heartly House,” she said. She has worked in the state legislature for a collective 12 years and will retire later this year.

Ironically, she is ending her term in the House much like she started it—advocating for abused and sexually assaulted women and children back as the acting CEO of Heartly House.

Hecht’s passion for the nonprofit sector began in the 80s while she was attending Hood College as an adult student. She was urged by an advisor to get involved in her local community, so she started volunteering at Heartly House on the domestic violence hotline in 1983. Two years later she became a member of the board of directors. Shortly thereafter, Heartly House’s executive director left the position, opening it up for Hecht. “I didn’t think I was qualified for that position, but someone else did and they believed in me,” she said. She led the Heartly House team until 1997, all the while serving her first term in the House of Delegates. She left the center in 1997 to focus on her political career, but she has returned to serve in an executive capacity at least three times, demonstrating what a true leader she is.

“Leadership is a collective vision of where you want to go,” Hecht said. “And it’s bringing people together to make it happen.” She added that the skills of a good leader include recognizing what you can and can’t do, listening to people to hear what their needs are, practicing reflective thinking, encouraging a collaborative approach and networking to get people involved and place them in the right positions.

“You have to be a team player to lead the charge effectively, and it helps to have a good organized team supporting you,” Hecht said. “When you see a need or issue, you rally people together for change. The concept is simple. It’s the execution that’s more difficult.”

Hecht prides herself on leading by listening to people to find direction. She networks with people and builds valuable relationships, so that when an issue comes up, she can call on experts to get a better understanding on the issue and see how to resolve it. “It takes trust, respect, communication and really listening to what people are saying to take that collective vision and communicate it internally and externally to create the right team to get it done.”

Born and raised in Montgomery County, Hecht later moved her family to Frederick County in the late 70s. Growing up in Montgomery County and then moving to Frederick may have given her an advantage. “When you live in a community with established resources and programs, and then move somewhere that doesn’t have the same things, you may ask yourself why,” she said. In the beginning of her political career, one of her first local advocacy issues was for local youth recreation programs. There was nothing like that in Frederick County for her children to participate in, so she and a group of individuals came together to create the Linganore Area Youth Athletic Association (LAYAA). Since then just about every nook and cranny of Frederick County has created its own youth athletic association—another great example of Hecht being a leader, seeing a need and bringing people together to make it happen, grassroots style.

She feels that her biggest success has been bringing people together through networking and collaboration, and said that you can’t do it alone—you must have support. “You must be passionate and have that fire in your belly about what you’re doing. And most of all you have to believe in it.”

Rachael Shankle is a freelance writer.

Maestro of an Eclectic Educational Orchestra

Stew Edelstein, Executive Director of the Universities at Shady Grove

by G.M. Corrigan

His Rockville office is bright and booklined—with surfaces decorated with art and travel photos— and looks out over the higher education campus he loves.

One photo in particular may be telling—of the man and his uncommon ability to build consensus among nine Maryland state universities that, under the auspices of decade-old Universities at Shady Grove (USG), offer more than 60 undergraduate and graduate programs to area community college graduates and those pursuing continuing education and undergraduate degrees.

The photo is of Stewart Edelstein, Ph.D., associate vice chancellor for academic affairs of the University System of Maryland and executive director of USG, in front of the Taj Mahal. He looks happy. He looks energized. He looks at home in Agra.

“I become alive when I meet people who are different from me,” said Edelstein, of Tacoma Park. “I am fascinated by different cultures, and how they see the world.”

It’s a multicultural bent that he said helps him in a job where he has no real authority over the community colleges and public school systems for which he devises pathways to USG’s academic offerings, nor over the many local business interests that drive his curriculum.

He said listening is the key requirement for the job, supporting multi-provider, baccalaureate and graduate programs for upwards of 3,600 students he has shouldered since 2002.

“I listen to my partners. I listen to people in the community,” he said. “And I certainly listen to the people in the business community who are doing the hiring so as to understand how to bring the best programs here and ensure that our students are job-ready when they leave.”

Edelstein himself has an undergraduate degree in psychology from the University at Buffalo and a doctorate in higher education from the University of California, Berkeley.

“I believe in partnerships,” he said. “I believe in finding where the common ground is, and moving forward on principles and issues that people can coalesce on. I find myself working to build relationships one-on-one, because trust levels need to be very high, so that we can do something together that will be greater than we ever dreamed about alone.”

Edelstein employs the proactive skills he needs to partner with organizations such as University of Maryland, Bowie State University, Lockheed Martin, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health.

It’s an aptitude whose roots likely go back 45 years to the spectacle of a New York City kid lugging a bass fiddle—urged upon him by the elite high school he attended—through Gotham’s subways and mean streets.

“The worst thing was getting it up the stairs [to the High School of Music and Art],” he said. “Especially in winter time.”

But it was worth it, he added, because in mastering the prosaic, foundational instrument, he was able to play at school graduations in Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center. It also added active listening and teamwork to his skill set.

“One of the things I do here is help to build a team, a more complex team,” Edelstein said. “Because we’re really nine universities operating in one place—but as a partnership.”

Formerly a single-building night school, University of Maryland University College added day classes and two more education buildings in its 10 years of existence, and has gone from conferring bachelor’s degrees on 36 students in 2002 to 503 this year, graduating a total of 3,000 to date.

Edelstein is planning a fourth academic building for the 50-acre campus and hopes to take enrollment to 5,000 students.

“We are successful,” he said of operations funded by the University System of Maryland, “because the people we educate here understand that this is their ticket to being productive members of the community, and competitive for the jobs that are here—and that will be here as the community grows.”

G.M. Corrigan is a freelance writer who is finishing his first novel, Chasing Chickens: A Love Story. E-mail him at wagginway@comcast.net.

Holy Cross takes on Adventist Hospital

by Meghan Gourley

The once-sprawling rolling hills of upper Montgomery County have been bulldozed by progress, now punctuated with homes, condos and mini-malls to accommodate the growing number of residents looking to escape the congestion to the south.

But the growth and development spurt of the upcounty has resulted in a dire need for better access to healthcare, specifically emergency and acute care in a hospital. And that need has pitted two area hospital systems against one another for the right to build it.

Adventist HealthCare and Holy Cross Hospital are vying for a certificate of need from the Maryland Health Care Commission. Neither can go forward with their proposed plans without the okay from the commission.

“We have required considerations for projects such as these,” said Pamela Barclay, director for the Center of Hospital Services, the arm of the commission that oversees, investigates and ultimately awards the certificate of need (CON). “If an entity wants to build a hospital, we look at a standard set of review criteria that is consistent with the state health plan in regards to inpatient facilities and projected bed need for the entire county.”

Simply put, the commission generates a state health plan based on the current and projected needs of each county. Any hospital system wanting to build in a certain area must show how its plan will comply with and meet the needs of the state health plan. However, the commission also takes into consideration what the community wants and whether a proposed facility could have a negative impact on existing facilities in the area, Barclay said.

THE HISTORY

Adventist has been planning a medical campus development since 2002 when it purchased 200 acres of land in Clarksburg, just north of Germantown. “We knew it would be a medical campus, possibly anchored by a hospital,” said Robert Jepson, vice president for government relations at Adventist. “But at that time there was no need in the state health plan for a significant number of additional beds in Montgomery County. It didn’t make sense to apply [for the certificate of need] because it would have been rejected because there was no need for more beds.”

But because the area began to see signs of development, Adventist worked with community leaders, developers and elected officials to coordinate the plans of what hopes to become the Clarksburg Community Hospital.

“What we have here is a well-planned campus that integrates a live–work community that includes residential and commercial development with healthcare as the anchor,” said Jepson.

Enter Holy Cross.

In 2008, Holy Cross officials filed an application with the commission to build a hospital on the Montgomery College campus, throwing into question the plans for the Clarksburg facility.

At left: An architectural drawing of the possible new facility to be located in Clarksburg.

“For nearly a decade, Adventist publicly mentioned a variety of possible uses for their Clarksburg land,” said Yolanda Gaskins, public information officer at Holy Cross. “By 2008, we had both assessed the growing needs in the upcounty and taken action. We found the best location, leased the land, filed the CON application and put the finances together to make it happen. The upcounty’s need for quality healthcare is not something you put on hold.”

But Jepson maintained Holy Cross came along with no warning despite Adventist’s public plans to build. “It came out of left field,” he said. “Nobody in the community knew and certainly elected officials didn’t know. It came as a surprise to everyone.”

And perhaps this is the crux of the acrimony that has developed between the two nationally recognized systems that stand to gain big-time if their respective hospital earns the right to build. If Holy Cross builds, it projects a net operating revenue of $91 million, whereas Adventist forecasts a $79.8 million operating revenue.

“Holy Cross did initially submit a letter of intent with a proposal,” said Barclay. “And there was some concern by Adventist. There was a feeling that if you’re going to consider proposals for an acute care facility, you should consider both, and the applicants saw the benefits of that.”

In turn, Holy Cross withdrew its application so that Adventist could prepare its own, and the two could be submitted at the same time for a side-by-side comparison. “Basically, we restarted our review so that Adventist could submit their proposal, and each has had the opportunity to review the other’s proposal, comment and revise their own,” Barclay said. “When there are competing proposals, you do get a strong debate in terms of the advantages and disadvantages of each, and that’s a good thing.”

WHY NOW?

One doesn’t have to look far to figure out why these two hospital systems are fighting so hard to spearhead healthcare service in the upcounty. Currently, there are about 300,000 people wedged in a 30-mile stretch between Shady Grove Hospital in Rockville, and Frederick Memorial Hospital. The fastest-growing community in lower Frederick County is Urbana, whose master plan projects 31,000 residents by 2020. Just a tad south over the county line is Clarksburg, which is expected to grow by as much as 35,000 people in the next 20 years. And Germantown is expected to see well over 100,000 people in the coming years. The upcounty area is the largest concentration of people that is not served by a hospital, according to an economic impact study commissioned by Holy Cross and performed by Sage Policy Group’s Chairman and CEO, Anirban Basu.

Currently, residents in the upcounty are directed between using the services of Shady Grove Hospital or Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring, traveling congested roads to receive care in a hospital setting. It has been more than 30 years since a new facility was built in this corner of Maryland—and that was Shady Grove Hospital in 1979.

Aging baby boomers also will be putting a burden on healthcare services, with 70 percent of Montgomery County

citizens age 65 and older in the coming years. “Studies tell us that the use rate for hospitals is six times greater for seniors than it is for other age groups,” said Eileen Cahill, vice president of government and community relations at Holy Cross.

THE PROPOSALS

Adventist plans to build on a 60-acre parcel of land just off the Route 121 exit of I-270 in Clarksburg. Initial plans include an 83-bed full-service hospital\ and medical offices. Future plans for the campus will include doctors’ offices, a nursing and rehabilitation center, a primary care clinic, a daycare center and outpatient services. By working as part of a larger development, Adventist has the potential to build more quickly because its site has already received nearly every land use approval from the county government, Jepson said, giving Adventist a jump on the Holy Cross plan. “We’re well ahead of our friends at Holy Cross in land-use approvals.” A Clarksburg campus would dovetail with its freestanding 4-year-old Germantown Emergency Center, which sees 36,000 patients each year, Jepson said. Not only would residents from Clarksburg and Germantown utilize the facility, but so would residents in lower Frederick County. “What most people are concerned about is ready access to emergency care,” Jepson said. “With our plan, more patients in upper Montgomery County and lower Frederick County have access to additional points of care.”

Adventist President and CEO Bill Robertson (pictured at left) said his proposal is a win-win for the community and Montgomery College. “The college gets to keep its land for future academic needs in order to meet the growing demand from community students, and everyone has access to a hospital just a few miles up I-270,” he said.

Holy Cross plans to build on 40 acres on the campus of Montgomery College in Germantown. If built, the hospital would be the only one in the country located on a college campus, giving unprecedented access to nursing students. Basu’s study estimates the number of nursing graduates would double from 90 to 180 if Holy Cross wins its bid.

“Holy Cross has put forward a proposal that is to the benefit—from their perspective—of students and healthcare personnel. The healthcare personnel aspect is definitely something the commission would look at,” said Barclay.

The proposed 101-bed hospital will have private rooms, including six psychiatric beds and an eight-bassinet nursery. The hospital would anchor the future Montgomery College Science and Technology Park, which is expected to occupy one million square feet with 4,000 employees. The park’s plan is a partnership between the college and other local universities to produce well-educated and highly trained scientists, technicians and entrepreneurs.

THE IMPACT ON OTHERS

One bone of contention, however, is the Germantown Emergency Center, owned and operated by Adventist. Jepson said if Holy Cross builds in Germantown, the emergency center will suffer. However, Gaskins maintained Holy Cross’s plan wouldn’t negatively impact the center because most people who use the center do not need inpatient hospital care, which the center doesn’t provide. “Ambulances don’t even go there,” she said.

“The Germantown Emergency Center [GEC] is not a source of care for patients arriving by ambulance. Almost all GEC patients are walk-in,” according to a Holy Cross posting on the Facebook page it created to rally support for its plan. Adventist has created its own similar Facebook page. “The GEC serves a lot of people, but for the most part it does not serve a population that needs the kind of care offered by a hospital emergency department. That’s a FACT.”

“That’s absurd,” Jepson countered. “To have two emergency departments a mile from one another and say there’s no impact is absolutely an unsubstantiated claim. We have saved lives—we get stabbing victims, chest pain—there’s the full gamut of emergency care there. I don’t know where they are getting their information from. They have not been a part of operating the facility. All they have done is stand by and criticize it.”

Jepson cites a dramatic decrease in patients using the Shady Grove Hospital emergency room. Because there was virtually no emergency care for residents in the upcounty prior to the Germantown center opening, residents were

forced to travel to Shady Grove Hospital. “We have made it more possible for people to access emergency care, and do it in a lower cost setting,” Jepson said. “Patients and insurers pay less for emergency medical care [in a free-standing facility] than they would at an acute care hospital.”

The commission’s Barclay said impact on other facilities, such as the Germantown Emergency Center, is considered when making a decision on who gets the CON. “We do look at the impact on existing providers and the total healthcare delivery system,” she said.

CAN THEY BUILD IT?

The two hospitals do have one opponent that has declared that neither plan is feasible. The Maryland Health Care Services Cost Review Commission (MHCSCR) provided a report to the commission that outlines their opinion that neither player can afford to build a new facility. Adventist projects a $177 million price tag for the project while Holy

Cross expects to spend $202 million.

The negative report stems from the feasibility to complete a successful project given the rising cost of healthcare and the current economic environment. The MHCSRC predicts that bond funding will not be an attractive method of financing in today’s market because investors will not be able to get the return on investment that would have been possible in the past.

Each hospital objects to the way in which the MHCSCR conducted its study before generating the report and has vehemently defended their financial strength, although with few details.

Jepson said Adventist has a solid financing plan in place, while Holy Cross’s Gaskins said its parent company, Trinity Health, has agreed to fund the entire project.

WHAT’S NEXT?

The two applications are being reviewed, and a commission reviewer has visited both proposed sites as well as the two systems’ existing hospitals, Barclay said. At the end of August the reviewer will preside over an evidentiary hearing when each camp will make its case. The reviewer then makes a recommendation to the commission. That recommendation will be released to the two hospitals and each has the option to file exceptions before the full 15-member commission makes a decision. Majority rules. “Moving as quickly as possible to build a new hospital is critical,” said Holy Cross CEO Kevin J. Sexton (pictured at right). “Whether it ends up being Holy Cross Hospital or Adventist HealthCare, we need a new hospital.”

Although the two hospitals are battling for the coveted CON, it is possible that neither will get it, Barclay said. The commission can decide to award the CON to either of the hospitals, or to both, which both camps agree will likely not happen. “The commission also may decide that this is not the right time to build a hospital in the upcounty,” Barclay said.

Neither hospital would agree it was confident it would get the CON, but all seemed in agreement that an acute care hospital is direly needed in the upcounty, or else it will be the thousands of residents in the upcounty who lose the war.

Local Officials Discuss How to Attract and Keep Businesses in Maryland

Photography by Bill Millios

Roundtable Guests (pictured above, left to right)

Steve Silverman
Executive Director of the Montgomery County Department of Economic Development

Ursula Powidzki
Director of the Office of Business Development at the State of Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development

Kirill Reznik
Delegate for the 39th District in Montgomery County
Health and Government Operations Committee Member

Nick Colonna
Manager of Comprehensive Planning for the City of Frederick
Former Senior Planner for the City of Leesburg, VA and the City of Fairfax, VA.

Laurie Boyer
Executive Director of the Frederick County Office of Economic Development

PATTEE BROWN:We’re looking at why major corporations aren’t attracted to Maryland. When you compare the two states, they seem very comparable. Virginia has more than 16,000 high-tech companies, and Maryland ranks number two in the nation for its number of professional and technical workers. Virginia ranks third, and is the recipient of research and development funds from the federal government, and Maryland ranks second in federal obligations in R&D per capita. So, why is the perception that Virginia is better for business development than Maryland? Why did Northrop Grumman not land in Maryland? Did we do something wrong?

STEVEN SILVERMAN: No, I don’t think we did anything wrong. On the heels of Northrop Grumman choosing to locate in Virginia, which was probably the most well-publicized location process, I think that perception was created or reinforced. We are disappointed, obviously, but I think the economic climate created an environment in which Northrop Grumman had some bottom-line decisions they wanted to make. But, more importantly in terms of moving forward, the governor, the state legislative leadership, as well as everybody on the Montgomery County Council— and of course [Montgomery County Executive] Ike Leggett— all tried to do things differently. The governor stepped up big time. The bottom line is corporate relocation decisions are based on much broader factors than incentive packages offered. If there’s any silver lining about not getting Northrop Grumman, it’s that the consultants out of New York who worked on the incentive packages said they were “blown away” by Maryland’s aggressive approach to doing what it was going to take to land Northrop Grumman. So, the bad news is we didn’t land the big fish. The good news is we helped change the perception of how Maryland is willing to play, and I think that’s exactly what’s going to have to continue to happen over the next few years.

LAURIE BOYER: If the perception is that the leadership of the state and the local jurisdiction supports business development, so that a company would feel comfortable calling an elected official to request attention—and believe they’re going to get a positive response from that—that goes a long way toward the perception of a business-friendly jurisdiction. The state of Virginia has had that perception for a very long time. It has, consistently, for many years, been seen as a business-friendly state because companies believe they have that relationship, whether it’s true or not. The perception is that they can, and that’s the important thing for Maryland to learn. We need to make sure that is the perception businesses have of the state of Maryland and our local jurisdictions as well.

NICK COLONNA: When looking at relocating to Virginia versus Maryland, what most companies consider is how difficult it will be for them to move through the permitting system. Maryland may have the best package and they may have great education, but is it going to take 2 years or 8 years to build this office site? The incentives are pretty equal between Virginia and Maryland, but Virginia has done a better job of building applicability into their zoning regulations and their comprehensive plan regulations. I know Frederick city and county have been working hard in streamlining those regulations and changing that perception. As a whole, the state of Maryland has become much more aggressive in this area because we see the problems.

URSULA POWIDZKI: If you do look at the analyses, on economy.com, which is owned by Moody’s, Virginia does have an overall lower cost of business, but by a very minor degree. It depends on which numbers you choose and which tax rate you want to earn. The state has a different profile; a lot of it is rural once you get past Northern Virginia, and that does come into play depending on the industry. But, by another measure— on economy.com they call it “vitality”— economists look at long-term economic growth potential. Maryland does considerably better from that perspective. I think that speaks to some of the existent strengths that we have in the state and the educated workforce, and a couple of really powerful sectors.

KIRILL REZNIK: This whole Northrop Grumman thing, from my perspective, and this is not in any way disparaging to the county or the Department of Economic Development, was a big public relations move. If we had not put in a forceful effort, it would have just quietly gone to Virginia. It was fairly predetermined where Northrup would land, and they were actually surprised at how forceful Maryland was in trying to win their business. But the reality is, Northrop Grumman does not have a diversified client base. Their number one client is the Department of Defense, and they want to be next to their client. They want to be next to an airport because they primarily create aircrafts and other equipment that goes in aircrafts, so they want to be by Dulles Airport. But look at what we do have: we have NIST, we have the Department of Energy, we have NIH. These are the ones that we have on our side, and the companies that do business with those government agencies are going to want to be next to their clients, which are here in Montgomery County.

PATTEE: Since it was predetermined that Northrop Grumman was going to end up in Virginia given their desire to be close to their client, don’t you think that courting them was probably the worst PR move you could have made? Didn’t you simply reinforce a negative perception of Maryland by publicizing a fight we were never going to be able to win?

STEVEN SILVERMAN: It was important to show that Maryland is engaged in these courtships, but more importantly, I think we’ve done a few things beyond Northrop Grumman. We just passed the White Flint Master Plan, which is going to completely reshape Rockville Pike. It will be the next Bethesda in terms of an economic engine: thousands of housing units, millions of square feet of commercial space, all mixed-use around the metro, sort of a mini-version of Tyson’s [Corner]. We just unanimously passed the Great Seneca Science Center Master Plan, which will create an extraordinary opportunity for life sciences to pick up on what’s already up there in terms of human genome and MedImmune, so those land use pieces are very important.

MARK AVALLONE, Potomac Wealth Advisors: I want to know how much of that perception can be traced back to legislation. For instance, the Walmart legislation where clearly one large company was targeted by the state. How much does legislation figure into perception? Legislation about an energy tax or that the estate tax differential is significantly lower in Virginia. Are these things perception or reality?

KIRILL REZNIK: It depends on which taxes you want to look at. We raised the sales tax 2 years ago from 5 to 6 percent. Virginia is at 5 percent, everybody else around us, with the exception of Delaware, is about 6 percent, if not higher. However, when you actually compare it, Virginia’s sales tax of 5 percent applies to everything. Maryland’s 6 percent does not apply to groceries or medication. The average person who goes to the supermarket will come out with a lower bill in Maryland. Virginia has their personal property tax, which we don’t have. Everybody who has a car, a boat, multiple cars, whatever it may be, gets an annual tax bill from the government every year to pay. We don’t have that. So it’s a balancing act. And when you look at who’s really in trouble, while Maryland is having some trouble, Virginia is shutting down schools—we’re not doing that. So, it’s what you want to compare. On the whole, I think we’re about even. You’re right that certain high-profile things like the Walmart bill and the healthcare bill puts us in a bad light.

LAURIE BOYER: When the Walmart bill was introduced, as well as the increase in the sales tax, there was a lot of media coverage. When those things changed, when the sales tax did not apply to tech companies anymore, when the Walmart bill was overturned in the courts, you did not have the same level of press coverage because it wasn’t considered newsworthy. So, part of our challenge is creating those relationships with our media outlets to make sure that information is getting as much coverage as it did when it was a bad thing for the state.

DAVID EDGERLEY, HarVest Bank of Maryland: I’d like to ask about the small business activity that all of you are seeing. What can you do today, to get certainty back into the equation for businesses seeking to open shop in your area? Isn’t the current economy giving us an opportunity to make changes that gives certainty to the process for all of the business community?

STEVEN SILVERMAN: Dave, very good point, the certainty issue. Montgomery County has had a reputation of having a very hard and torturous process to go through permitting if you want to expand your business or you’ve got anything related to land use. For the first time in 17 years, we are on the cusp of revamping our permitting processes in Montgomery County and our land use approval processes through Parks and Planning, which unfortunately don’t exist anywhere else in Maryland except Prince Georges County. We recently announced an infusion of $2 million into a small business revolving loan program that we have. We’ve never had this type of infusion of cash into this program. It isn’t geared toward the tech community, it isn’t geared towards retail—it’s across the board. We’re going to be publicizing that as much as possible, but when you talk about leveraging opportunities, the folks knocking on our door for those types of loans are not saying, “I need $50,000 to do this, that’s 100 percent of what I need.” They’re saying, “I need some gap closure. I can get some money from the bank, I’ve got my own resources, but I need a little help.” That’s the kind of leveraging that we can do with those types of programs.

PATTEE: So, why is there so much frustration? Every time I talk to Laurie or Steve, you both have such great stories about the help your departments offer businesses, and how the county is so involved in economic and workforce development. So, what are we doing wrong? Or, what’s wrong with this picture that the people who are trying to set up businesses are jumping up and down and turning bright red in the face and screaming that nobody will help them? Where is that disconnect coming from?

NICK COLONNA: In the City of Frederick, the 2010 Comprehensive Plan that we passed in November started really looking at this issue from a neighborhood level. What do we have left of 600 to 800 acres of vacant land that we need to infill, and how do we do that right? Which corporations and which businesses do we attract, and what are the incentives for that? That has to be translated, though, into a regulatory document, because a comprehensive plan sounds great—we go do this, we do neighborhood planning, etc., but your zoning ordinances or, what we call in the City of Frederick, the Land Management Code, has to be complementary to that. And when that becomes 17 different ways to infill a window, or to put in a window, that’s where the frustration comes in from the small businesses, which we decided to recognize and streamline.

URSULA POWIDZKI: I do want to speak to the issue of the perception of regulatory slowdowns and permitting processes, which definitely plays out at the state level. We periodically hear very unpleasant stories about businesses that waited for months to get an environmental review complete, so there’s a great push to improve that and the governor is tremendously interested in seeing this happen. Certainly our agency, since it does work with businesses, is in the middle of the mix. Some of the traditional agencies that conduct these reviews haven’t necessarily seen the business community as their client base, and so it’s really a cultural shift that has to take place. The other initiative that has been underway for some time is a central business licensing project that again would centralize the process of what somebody needs to go through to get the necessary signoffs at the state level. We’re very cognizant of the fact that we can’t coast on federal government growth forever.

RON WILLS, HarVest Bank of Maryland: We always hear about education in this area, and we hear about the number of Ph.Ds. Just a personal experience with Montgomery County education: my older two children went to private high school, and then my youngest is going to Clarksburg High School. I have been overwhelmed at how good a quality high school it is. I didn’t know what to expect, and it could not be any better. How important is this for businesses coming into the area? I know we talk about it, but is it just one of those things we talk about, or is it really something we act on?

URSULA POWIDZKI: Yes, of course. I’d say there are a couple of examples where it is quite important. When we deal with out-of-state companies, even ones that have a manufacturing component, and you’d think in the old days that would have been irrelevant, it’s not. It’s hugely important because we’re looking for skilled workers, whether machinists or some other trade, and then certainly the professional or corporate headquarters; it’s enormous. They want to see the housing. They want to see the value of the schools.

LAURIE BOYER: For the second year in a row now, Maryland has been ranked number one for our public education system. That means we beat Virginia, and everybody else. It’s not just our public schools. As you mentioned, we have great private schools in the state, but our community college system is also one of the most highly acclaimed and highly accredited community college systems that we have in the country. The community colleges have really stepped up to be the customized training specialists for our companies.

ROSS DANGEL, RCM&D: I think that unless there’s a substantial change in Annapolis—in the House, Senate and with the governor—we’re not going to see a whole lot of change. You’re going to continue to struggle with these initiatives to attract business.

KIRILL REZNIK: I think there are two different questions there. In terms of growth of the government, in the past four years, we’ve cut almost $6 billion in the state budget. The vast majority of that money has come out of government operation. We haven’t cut the subsidy. We haven’t cut a great deal of aid to counties. We have not cut public safety. And we have not cut education. In fact, we’ve increased money in education. The vast majority of this $6 billion that we’ve cut out of the budget has been out of the state government. The state government has shrunk. I realize that maybe that’s not the perception, but that is the reality. Now in terms of the regulatory side of things, and this whole concept of friendliness to business, without a specific example, it’s very hard to argue one point versus another. I just saw a report done by an affiliate of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that says that Maryland ranks at the top of business-friendliness when that equation is measured as the amount of money that is returned to business as a benefit from government, compared to the amount of money that is sent from business to government in terms of taxes and revenues. A partnership with business is what we need. We need to have that communication factor open. I know that the lobbyists for the Montgomery County Chamber are in my office all the time—there is an open door to come into my office—as are the lobbyists for the unions and the environmental groups and everybody else. Everybody has the right to come in and talk to me, and when we get everybody around the table to find the optimal solution, that’s when the good things happen. When we start pitting one against the other, that’s when bad things happen.

Women in Leadership Roles Define Their Success

by Sharon Hadary

What makes successful businesswomen successful? Simply put, they’re women.

In record numbers, women have achieved higher levels of responsibility in industries that traditionally have been dominated by men—but not because they emulate their male counterparts. Rather, successful female leaders embrace a leadership style that builds on their unique strengths. And that, women say, is what is contributing to their success.

Today, there are more women in leadership positions in the United States than ever before. Women hold more than half of all management and professional positions. 40 percent of U.S. businesses are women-owned, and 14 percent of the members of the military are women.

Research shows that corporations with more women in leadership positions actually perform better on key financial measures. Many male leaders value what is different in a woman’s leadership style and view the differences as complementary.

Camye Mackey

“Generally speaking, men tend to focus on the facts and numbers,” said Camye Mackey, assistant vice president and corporate director of human resources for the hotel division of B.F. Saul Company. “Women tend to supplement the facts with a 360-degree view of the situation, looking at organizational and people implications that often are not reflected in the numbers.”

The most successful women in business define success for themselves. Their decisions are value-based and successful women have the courage to act based on those values. Faye Coleman, founder and CEO of Bethesda-based Westover Consultants, Inc., observed that men tend to define success in monetary terms, while women focus on vision and mission. “While I always expected to build a business that would be an institution, from the start, I defined success in two ways: (1) by providing professionally meaningful jobs for people to help them find their voice through a rewarding career; and (2) by providing services to make a positive difference in other people’s lives. More than 25 years later, these values still drive our business.”

Dr. Faye Coleman

It is important to female leaders to stay true to themselves, and they dismiss others’ attempts to pigeonhole them based on stereotypes or force them into traditional styles of leadership. “Don’t change your behavior because you think it is too much like a woman,” said Col. Judith Robinson, Garrison Commander, Fort Detrick. “When I brought a plant into the waiting area at a battalion station, I got a lot of ribbing about how ‘girly’ that was. But when the young infantry guys commented on how great it was to see something like this—and expected plants to continue showing up—I knew I had done the right thing.”

Research shows that women tend to be integrative in their thinking. Some say that men generally prefer what is known as “left brain” thinking, which is characterized by facts, logic and hierarchy and women tend to use “right brain” thinking, a style characterized by relationship building, values and intuition. Interestingly, women are likely to use both right- and left-brain thinking. While they do, indeed, focus on relationship building, values and intuition, they also want the facts and use logical thinking. The result is a style of leadership that is collaborative, inclusive and consultative.

Female leaders combine their preference for relationship building and their quest for information to create a diverse and expansive circle of advisors. The result is a rich range of options that is especially valuable in dealing with today’s challenges. When making a decision, women reach out to those who will be impacted by the decision, including employees, colleagues and customers. They seek advice from them and stress ongoing communication.

Mackey has instituted a weekly call with all of her directors in the field. “We use the call to bring everyone up to date on business issues. But most importantly, we recognize accomplishments, and share experiences and best practices and let everyone know that they are not alone.”

Colonel Judy Robinson

Robinson focuses on multitasking as one of the core strengths that women bring to leadership. “Growing up on a farm, I learned that you could never do just one job—you were juggling several, while thinking about others; getting them all organized in your brain,” she said. “Whether it was planting, butchering, preserving, cooking or a plethora of others, I learned to weave it all together, and to think about the myriad of little details that move you from good to as close to perfection as possible. My day at Fort Detrick may be in a different environment, but it is still that collection of tasks with a myriad of details to track.”

Women’s leadership styles are especially well-suited to leading in this time of economic and social turbulence and transformation—a time when ideas and collaboration are taking precedence over production and procedure. This nation’s recovery will not simply be recreating what we had before. Business models are shifting, and indeed must shift. Values are being revisited. What sets women apart is what positions them to be at the leading edge of these transformations.

Sharon Hadary is the former and founding executive director of the Center for Women’s Business Research. She is currently principal of Sharon Hadary & Co. and is an adjunct professor at University of Maryland University College. She writes and speaks nationally on women’s business leadership. Visit www.sharonhadary.com for more information.

by Linda Alexander
Photography by Erick Gibson

Discovering the Evolution of Diversity and Inclusion

My editor sent me on a journey to find the meaning of diversity. As a term, diversity has various meanings for various individuals under various circumstances. She told me to discover what the term means in corporate America, and why corporate giants such as Lockheed Martin, Sodexho, and Kaiser Permanente are embracing this issue with such fervor. What does the average business professional think when they hear the word diversity? What meaning does the word carry in today’s business community?

As one person told me, “Diversity is not simple.” According to Angela Hart-Edwards, an attorney with Shulman Rogers’ Employment and Labor Law practice group who advises clients on employment law, including non-discrimination and compliance, “diversity practices are the intention to employ no business practice, policy, culture or procedure that negatively impacts one group while favorably impacting another.”

According to the Sodexho website, “We are building a comprehensive diversity strategy that creates an inclusive environment for all talent. The more inclusive we are, the better positioned our teams will be to differentiate themselves in the marketplace and create innovative solutions to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse customer base.”

My first question: Isn’t building a thriving diverse environment simply the right thing to do? Why do we need to build strategies and create programs to do the right thing? We make laws and create mandatory programs as if in doing so we can force morality. For instance, various diversity programs have been introduced into the workforce such as the National Science Foundation’s ADVANCE program designed to integrate women into science and engineering. Also, a Task Force with the U.S. Department of Commerce was created by Former Vice President Al Gore for reinventing government diversity.

But have these strategies led to more minorities in upper management? Have they led to heightened awareness and acceptance of each other based on skill rather than race, religion, gender and lifestyle? Most of the people I spoke with say “yes” to the first question, and “maybe” to the second. Yet, 51 percent of the workforce is female but only 14 percent serve on boards of directors and only 2 percent of women are CEOs, according to the 2007 Catalyst Census of Women Corporate Officers and Top Earners of the Fortune 500. Plus, Diversity Best Practices reports that 67 percent of the workforce is white and 33 percent is minority status even though 96 percent of CEOs are white and only 4 percent are minority status.

John Huggins is the attorney for the Executive Leadership Council of Maryland, which gives African- American executives the opportunity to connect with and support each other in business. Huggins believes diversity means “giving individuals from varied backgrounds an opportunity to participate in building and developing our country, economy and politics—without exclusion.”But does this transfer from theory into practice?

“Life benefits those who engage,” Huggins said. “The more one engages in community business, the more empowered one becomes.” In other words, the more we participate, the more we contribute to the solution.

So, if people do engage in their business community, why do we need to legislate diversity? Does legislation expand corporate leadership programs and regulate accountability? Hart-Edwards said she believes that legislating diversity—or putting non-negotiable practices into place—definitely does expand the corporate structure and the ability to bring in a more diverse leadership.

Yet if this is true, and legislation or mandatory new programs really do sway the masses, are employers seeing the light? Or are they simply being coerced into compliance? It depends, Hart-Edwards said. While right and wrong can factor into diverse practices, it’s rarely the driver.

When I worked for the federal government more than 10 years ago, diversity was actually an integrated mandate. At the time, the government was ahead of the curve and I’ve never said that before. So, has corporate America followed the lead of the federal government when it comes to diversity, and by doing so, has it allowed diversity to become the norm?

Hart-Edwards said yes, the government is a forerunner in the diversity movement. “It started as a government mandate,” she explained, “from EEO and affirmative action. Now, diversity goes beyond what’s required.” She believes the workforce has no choice but to embrace diversity. Frederick and Montgomery counties have ever-expanding diverse populations. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Montgomery County comprises 51.8 percent women, 16.9 percent African Americans, 14.8 percent Hispanics, and 13.5 percent Asian Americans. Frederick County includes 50.6 percent women, 9 percent African American, 6 percent Hispanic, and 3.6 percent Asian American. While businesses must conform to stay afloat, they’ll thrive by embracing diversity as a way to do business, as well as a way to live.

Each segment of the population has a voice, buying power and political support. For example, 2.5 million women in the United States will have combined assets of $4.2 trillion by the year 2050, according to the Internal Revenue Service. A

November 2009 study released by the Selig Center at the University of Georgia estimates that African-American buying power will be about $1.1 trillion by 2014, with current spending power at about $910 billion dollars. It makes no sense not to incorporate diversity practices into the corporate structure.

But diversity alone is not enough. Diversity and inclusion, Hart-Edwards said, is the right formula for success. Diversity 101 is the simple act of understanding differences. Inclusion goes deeper.

In Bechtel’s corporate literature, the term inclusion receives credence. Susan McCullough, Bechtel’s human resources diversity manager in Frederick, said their vision values an inclusive culture based on diverse backgrounds and experience.

But on my journey I spoke with people who define diversity simply as affirmative action. Over dinner one evening with a group of friends who are highly educated business people, I heard statements such as, “Affirmative action? A check in the box.” The consensus seemed to be that diversity as a common practice is a vague notion. In other words, the concept of diversity as it is defined by corporate America has not necessarily filtered down into the average everyday business vernacular. “It’s an evolution,” Hart-Edwards said. Still, Lockheed Martin’s website avows “commitment to inclusion and respect,” saying, “We are committed to creating one company … all-inclusive, where diversity contributes to the Lockheed Martin vision. Diversity is an inclusive team that values and leverages … individuality. It’s about living our values of doing what’s right, respecting others and performing with excellence.” Lockheed Martin “values doing what’s right.”

I’m getting somewhere. Corporations that have embraced diversity practices are proud to announce their programs and speak of doing “the right thing.” Are diversity and inclusion becoming the law of the land because they’re the right thing to do or because businesses won’t survive otherwise? Hart-Edwards said, “Business people do care about doing the right thing, but they’re in business. You’ve got to understand. It won’t be about the right thing if profitability goes down.”

My effort to understand diversity and inclusion leads to an epiphany. I discovered it is legislation that actually launched the diversity revolution in corporate America—not the desire to do the right thing. Yet, it was through those laws that companies eventually discovered that diversity practices and inclusion are profitable. Doing the right thing is merely a by-product. For example, a study by Cedric Herring, a professor with the University of Illinois at Chicago, compared the revenue of companies practicing various levels of diversity and found that those companies reporting the highest levels of racial diversity brought in nearly 15 times more sales revenue on average than those with the lowest levels of racial diversity. Gender diversity accounted for a difference of $599.1 million in average sales revenue.

So, on my journey into diversity I have learned that diversity and inclusion practices do help us to evolve. However, at least in business, the reason that evolution takes place is still very much driven by the bottom line. I also learned that most people, beyond those in large corporate firms who are implementing these extensive programs, have no idea what diversity and inclusion actually are and still believe it is simply the government mandate of affirmative action or equal employment opportunity.

The business community is about to realize that diversity and inclusion will no longer need to be legislated to be implemented. Companies that don’t employ diversity practices will be left behind in an old paradigm of thinking as they try to increase their slice of a pie that is getting smaller everyday instead of seeking out a slice of the pie that is growing every day. In the end, we’ll do the right thing because it’s good for business.

Photography by Bill Millios

A CANDID DISCUSSION ABOUT DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION IN THE WORKPLACE

As 270inc set out to better understand diversity and inclusion, what we discovered on our journey was revealing.

Like most of us, many people we spoke with were unable to define what diversity and inclusion mean as they pertain to business. Most people had a vague notion of the word “diversity” as associated with affirmative action or equal employment opportunity laws. So, I sat down at the table with my Co-Publisher Harby Tran, Managing Editor Meghan Gourley and Assistant Rachael Shankle to discuss the concept of diversity and inclusion with the top diversity executives of the largest corporations in our region.

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by Linda Alexander
Photography by Bill Millios

We asked them the question: How do you think the issues of immigration and immigration reform affect the country’s business culture, our local business community and our society?

Immigration reform is a hot topic.  Jorge Ribas with the Mid Atlantic Hispanic Chamber of Commerce believes we must learn from other countries and create a path to citizenship for all immigrants currently in the United States. Steve Berryman, commercial construction estimator and local Frederick commentator, believes that the benefits of citizenship belong to those who have gone the traditional, legal path to American citizenship.

Point: Greed Drives Illegal Immigration

Jorge Ribas: President, Mid Atlantic Hispanic Chamber of Commerce

Across this country, the need for manpower is critical. We need to have people who drive tractors and equipment, and put pipes in the ground. Most Americans don’t want these jobs. We need comprehensive immigration reform that looks at our national interests first, before setting long-term goals.

In the 1940s, braceros were young Mexicans imported by the U.S. government with promises of Social Security retirement.  Workers were needed to produce food. These immigrants were legal. They worked here and fought for this country in World War II. We intentionally brought in immigrants to do these jobs.

When the government decided they no longer needed them, they were kicked out, benefits unpaid, which is reprehensible for a country founded on respect for the law.

Who brings in illegal immigrants? Builders who pay low wages and maximize profits. Building costs go down, but the price of a new home goes up. Greed drives illegal immigration. The building and construction industry is making money on the backs of undocumented workers who discover it’s complicated and costly to become legal once they are here.

The government recognizes that the immigration process we now have is broken, but Congress hasn’t prescribed legislation to fix it. I predict this year we’ll have immigration reform, but we must proceed in an orderly manner to ensure we are doing it effectively. We’re living in a competitive, globalized market and world— we have to be sure we are on the cutting edge of immigration.

CounterPoint: Blanket Amnesty Gives Zero Value to Citizenship

Steve Berryman: Frederick Commentator and Construction Estimator

I view immigration reform as a moral issue more than a business issue. Of course, good immigration reform would level the playing field and allow the workforce we need in this country to continue. But my real concern regarding this issue is blanket amnesty. We tried amnesty once before under President Reagan, which is, in essence, the root of the problem today. Reagan’s program was not followed up by securing our borders. Therefore, friends and family of those who received amnesty under Reagan’s rule overstayed their legal visas.

Blanket amnesty gives zero value to citizenship within the United States of America. I ask—is blanket amnesty fair to the folks who went through cultural assimilation, training, history, learning the traditions of America, and spending time and money to do it legally? If the immigration system seems broken, it’s only because the system is overloaded with too many people trying to become citizens. America is such a coveted destination because of our schools, medicine, quality of life, and mostly because of our entitlement programs. The word on the street in many countries seems to be “come to America because the poor in America live better than the rich in our country.” A poor person in America still has a television and a cell phone. Both sides of the aisle are to blame. In my opinion, it’s a moral issue more than a business issue.

Story by Mary Ellen Mitchell
Photography by Bill Millios

GROWING UP INSIDE THE GATES

Dwayne Oland lived near Fort Detrick as a little boy with his parents and fondly recounted his skills as a firefly hunter. “Some of the scientists were doing a study and offered local kids one cent for every two fireflies we captured and brought to them. Needless to say we caught bugs all summer long,” he said.

Oland’s childhood view of the neighboring army base is full of nostalgia, but for the past 35 years he has reported to its gates as an employee. When asked, “What is going on at Detrick?” Oland offered a unique perspective as someone who has spent the majority of his lifetime observing transformations at Fort Detrick. He began his career as a college intern and worked on the first computers there. As a young employee, the base paid for his master’s degree. He has seen many changes, particularly in security as a result of the September 11th attacks, but is satisfied to have spent his career working at Fort Detrick.

So many people in the Frederick community and down the I-270 corridor don’t know much about what goes on behind the fence line of the largest employer in Frederick County. Intrigue and speculation, weird science and conspiracy theories all fed by hyped-up media coverage and Hollywood movie plots leave many wondering, “What is going on at Fort Detrick?” And yet, more than 8,000 workers report for duty every week, equally mystified that outsiders don’t understand what for them is just a normal workplace.

CHANGING WITH THE TIMES

“The world is still confused about Fort Detrick. Even the men and women who worked at Fort Detrick prior to 1971 expect Fort Detrick to be a virtual fortress, steeped in secrecy and intrigue. The secret about Fort Detrick is that there is no secret!” reads Cutting Edge, a book written by Fort Detrick’s Public Affairs Officer and historian Norman Covert, who was quoting a Fort Detrick pamphlet from 1981.

Formerly Detrick Field, the base was a small airstrip in 1929 that was developed into a flight training facility for the Maryland National Guard. Shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor during World War II, the U.S. Army Air Corps also used the tarmac. In 1943 the area was renamed Camp Detrick and the U.S. Army Biological Warfare Laboratory was established on site. The camp employed more than 1,500 people, but wartime security was so tight that many people did not realize until after the war had ended that the experiments conducted at the camp were to mitigate biological warfare.

Camp Detrick was designated a permanent installation for peacetime biological research and development shortly after World War II and the post officially became Fort Detrick in 1956. On November 25, 1969, President Richard Nixon outlawed offensive biological research in the United States, and research at Fort Detrick became focused solely on defensive measures and how soldiers would be treated should they be exposed to biological threats in wartime.

In 1971, President Nixon once again changed the future of Frederick by announcing that he was creating the Frederick Cancer Research Facility of the National Cancer Institute at Fort Detrick.

Finally in 1972, The U.S. Army Medical Unit (USAMU) became the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) to carry out the research at Fort Detrick under the management of the U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command (USAMRDC). The National Cancer Institute (NCI-Frederick) opened at Fort Detrick in 1973.

Various stories of experiments gone wrong in the 1950s and 1960s, and 1980s AIDS conspiracy theories have followed the development of the biomedical campus. Fort Detrick was the center of media attention in 2001 and again in 2008 as a result of the anthrax attacks and speculation about several scientists.

WHAT IS USAMRIID?

The secrecy for the sake of national security that obscured the biological warfare research at Detrick changed when President Nixon outlawed the offensive work in 1969. All work done in the USAMRIID labs today is unclassified, and scientists in those labs publish findings much like their counterparts in academic settings.

“As the Department of Defense’s lead laboratory for medical biological defense, USAMRIID conducts basic research leading to the development of vaccines, drugs, diagnostics and information to protect U.S. service members from biological warfare threats,” reads the epilogue of Cutting Edge, describing the lab’s work in the 21st century. “The institute is a world-renowned reference laboratory for definitive identification of biological threat agents and diagnosis of the diseases they produce.”

“We are uniquely positioned,” said Col. John Skvorak (right), USAMRIID Commander. “We have been doing research in Frederick for 40 years. We have the people and the knowledge in place. We are a part of the larger biopharmaceutical industry and we focus on the threats to the war fighter. Findings still have civilian applications as we all have the same immune system.”

Fort Detrick’s scientists are highly respected by the larger scientific community. Over the years USAMRIID staff has worked with other agencies in response to severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and the West Nile virus. Most recently, they were sought for input on H1N1, or swine flu.

EXPANSION THIS DECADE

Illustration of the new Fort Detrick building

Buildings that are more than 40 years old have their obvious drawbacks, so USAMRIID is expanding at Fort Detrick. A $2 billion dollar expansion is planned that includes the construction

of an 810,000-squarefoot building to house the new laboratories; the architectural and engineering work of the design; and expanded infrastructure improvements such as supply

centers, waste treatment and roads. “Bio-technology has changed,” said Skvorak. “And we will have state-of-the-art capabilities.”

The new lab building is expected to open in 2014 for a year’s worth of system testing before scientists and support staff move in and begin work in 2015.

INSIDE LOOKING OUT

Fort Detrick Garrison Commander Col. Judy Robinson spends much of her time strengthening relationships between the post’s 43 mission partners and the greater community outside the gates. Currently, she and her staff are working with both Frederick County and city governments in response to a report filed by the National Academy of Science. “The report called for us to start a Community Advisory Council,” said Robinson. “We are going to focus on examining the science, laboratories and environmental issues in our discussions at the community level and expect to gain tremendous insight.”

One of Fort Detrick’s mission partners is the National Cancer Institute, or NCI-Frederick, which is operated by The Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC). NCI has been doing research at Fort Detrick since President Nixon declared war on cancer in 1971. “The National Cancer Institute manufactures drugs for clinical trials,” said Frank Blanchard, director of SAIC Public Affairs. “SAIC operates exclusively under a single, long-term contract with the National Cancer Institute, part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health.”

Another entity that operates just outside the gates is the Fort Detrick Alliance, Inc., which was founded in 2003 as an independent, non-profit Maryland corporation. Executive Director Christine Demas takes charge of the day-to-day activities and said, “Our mission is to facilitate communication between Fort Detrick and the community at large. We work daily to build relationships between Fort Detrick and individuals and businesses; civic, social and educational organizations; plus local and state government entities.”

Col. Robinson said she meets with the Fort Detrick Alliance regularly because “they are a community organization with a business focus. We use their relationships as a conduit to the greater community and meet monthly or bi-monthly to exchange information.”

FORT DETRICK GIVES BACK TO THE COMMUNITY

Col. Robinson illustrated the interaction between base employees and the county outside its gates. “One-third of the calls our fire department at Fort Detrick responds to are off our base and helping our neighbors in the county.”

Fort Detrick has been identified as a Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) area by the state of Maryland which allows additional funding of infrastructure projects for Frederick. (Fort Detrick is not designated in the Army BRAC program, just in the Maryland program). The Department of the Army has received a request from the Fort Garrison office to help fund the design work of the Monocacy Interchange on Route 15.

Richard Griffin, the city’s director of economic development, recognizes additional projects that have benefited from the BRAC designation such as “points on the east side of Frederick like the Brick Works Property, East Street, the Riverside Research campus and Carroll Creek Park.” The Frederick BRAC funding covered plans for office, industrial and warehouse space at Riverside Research Park, 66 acres of mixed-use development at the Frederick Brick Works, and a 1.3-mile mixed-use urban park at Carroll Creek Park.

OUTSIDE LOOKING IN

A number of local residents tell the story of Fort Detrick’s impact on Frederick County and neighboring areas. Washington County Commissioner candidate Ruth Anne Callaham outlined her county’s reaction to the expansion issues. “As a community, many are excited about the prospects. Some, however, see more of a problem in the congestion of open spaces and the potential loss of the bucolic farmland between Hagerstown and Frederick. With careful management, the expansion can be a win for both counties and the state. Many have been watching the progress of Fort Detrick and believe we are ready to meet the challenge.”

Business leaders perceive Fort Detrick as a generator for an economic uptick. “The Chamber sees Fort Detrick’s expansion as a positive development in our community, said Frederick County Chamber of Commerce CEO Ric Adams. “Jobs and economic activity on the base generate more jobs and business development outside Fort Detrick’s gates, so everyone wins. We are thrilled that they’re bringing additional recognition and expertise to our area.”

Retired Frederick Airport Manager Charlie Abell sees numerous advantages for new projects on post. “Growth and expansion at Fort Detrick would be a positive thing for the Frederick area as it would likely bring in new business and stimulate the local economy. Local businesses such as grocery stores, restaurants, gas stations, auto sale and repair services, as well as other retail sales outlets, will all benefit from growth at Fort Detrick.”

DISSENSION IN THE RANKS

While there are many people who laud the work of Detrick and look forward to its upcoming expansion, not everyone in the community is as positive.

A number of individuals have expressed concern publicly over the work being done in Fort Detrick’s laboratories. Frederick attorney Barry Kissin sees more than a coincidence between Frederick being the headquarters of the nation’s biodefense program and the anthrax attacks of 2001. “The federal budget grew tremendously after the anthrax incident and the response of politicians is frankly Orwellian,” he said.

Beth Willis and other residents have established the Frederick Citizens for Bio-lab Safety. Communication between the general public and Detrick staff over lab safety issues has been confined to public hearings that give citizens no more than three minutes to conduct a serious conversation. “The perception is that we are fearful,” said Willis. “In reality we are cautious and aware that human error or sabotage are still possible despite biosurety policies.”

The Frederick Citizens for Bio-lab Safety have led the charge to have the National Academy of Sciences do an environmental impact study for the labs of the National Institutes of Health and USAMRIID. It took legislation sponsored by Maryland Senator Barbara Mikulski to get the study done, but the building project at USAMRIID was already underway. Conversations continue and Willis’s group looks forward to the day when a Citizen’s Advisory Panel is established to discuss the findings.

WHAT DOES EXPANSION MEAN FOR FREDERICK?

“From the private innovation required to meet the growing needs of the Army, to the quality education institutions and partnerships with FCPS [Frederick County Public Schools], FCC [Frederick Community College], Hood and Mount Saint Mary’s to provide the pipeline of future scientists and engineers, to the quality-of-life aspects of Frederick that enable Fort Detrick to attract talent from across the country and around the world—these are all important aspects to Fort Detrick’s continued expansion,” explained Heather Graham, business development officer for the city’s Office of Economic Development. “Much of Frederick’s recent growth in the bioscience and advanced technology sectors are a direct result of Fort Detrick, and this trend will continue into the foreseeable future.”

Not only do contractors locate offices close to their customer, but many new business start-ups are the direct result of the technology developed on post at Fort Detrick. Through technology transfer agreements, companies are able to license technologies developed by the agencies at Fort Detrick and further refine those developments for commercial applications. There are several technology transfer offices at Fort Detrick, including one with NCI-Frederick, USAMRIID and USAMRMC.

The Maryland Technology Development Corporation provides seed funding for companies with technology transfer agreements, and the Frederick Innovative Technology Center (FITCI), Frederick’s high-tech business incubator, has many clients that are start-up companies engaged in technology transfer with mission partners at Fort Detrick.”

HOW WILL EXPANSION AFFECT THE GENERAL DC METRO AREA?

Rick Weldon, former Maryland delegate and current city employee summed up the impact of continuing expansion at Fort Detrick by commenting, “If we can grow local high-end employment options here in Frederick, maybe we can get some of those tens of thousands of daily commuters off of I-270. The DC Metro area has always retained a sort of immunity from economic ups and downs, partly because the federal government was the primary employer. It would be good to replicate that here in Frederick.”

Dwayne Oland, Fort Detrick employee, holds his firefly mason jar

Fort Detrick, Frederick County’s largest employer, pumps $520 million into the area’s economy every year.
Source: City of Frederick’s Office of Economic Development

FORT DETRICK RESOURCES

General information:
Fort Detrick
www.detrick.army.mil

For Job Seekers:
Frederick County Workforce Services Fort Detrick Employment Guide
www.frederickworks.com

For Business Information:
Fort Detrick Alliance
www.fortdetrickalliance.org

Fort Detrick Business Development Office
www.fdbdo.com

City of Frederick, Office of Economic Development
www.businessinfrederick.com

FORT DETRICK MISSION PARTNERS

• Air Force Medical Evaluation Support Activity
• Air Force Medical Operations Agency
• Air Force Medical Logistics
• Armed Forces Pest Management Board
• Army & Air Force Exchange Service
• Army Medical Department (OTSG & MEDCOM)
• B Company, 4th Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion Marine Corps
• Chemical Biological Medical Systems, Joint Project Management Office
• Civilian Human Resources Agency
• Civilian Personnel Advisory Center
• Company A, 1st SATCON Battalion
• Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs
• Defense Commissary Agency
• Defense Commissary Agency (Walter Reed AMC)
• Defense Contract Management Command
• Defense Medical Standardization Board
• Fisher House
• Industrial Hygiene
• Information Assurance Training Center
• Medical Communications for Combat Casualty Care
• National Cancer Institute, Frederick
• National Center for Medical Intelligence
• National Interagency Biodefense Campus
• National Interagency Confederation for Biological Research
• Naval Medical Logistics Command
• Navy Medical Research Center
• Technology Applications Office
• Telemedicine & Advanced Technology Research Center
• TriService Immunization-Allergy Specialist School
• Walter Reed Army Medical Center
• Headquarters, U.S. Air Force Surgeon General Medical Logistics
• U.S. Army Center of Environmental Health Research
• U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
• U.S. Army Dental Clinic
• U.S. Army Health Clinic
• U.S. Army Information Systems Engineering Command
• Fort Detrick Engineering Directorate
• U.S. Army Medical Materiel Agency
• U.S. Army Medical Materiel Development Activity
• U.S. Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity
• U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command
• U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases
• U.S. Army Reserve Center, Flair Armory
• U.S. Army Trial Defense Services, Fort Meade Branch Office
• U.S. Department of Agriculture
• U.S. Secret Service
• USUHS Medical Simulation Center
• Vaccine Healthcare Centers Network
• Walter Reed Army Institute of Research
• 1st Area Medical Laboratory Det 1
• 6th Medical Logistics Management Center
• 9th Area Medical Laboratory Det 1
• 21st Signal Brigade
• 114th Signal Battalion
• 302nd Signal Battalion

Updated March 2, 2010
Public Affairs Office • Contact information found at: http://www.detrick.army.mil/tenants/missionPartners

Bite-Sized Business Wisdom

“If we cannot end now our differences, at least we can make the world safe for diversity.”
—John F. Kennedy, 35th President of the United States

No matter where you look, the opportunity for change surrounds us all. There is no denying a level of personal and cultural bias in every community. The key to change comes in the recognition and acceptance of diversity through individual self-growth. If you choose to shut yourself off from the unknown, you will continue to live in darkness. We all need to learn to open our hearts and our doors to the unknown and unfamiliar. Be a role model for diversity. Take the personal challenge to open yourself to the diverse world around us. It starts or ends with you.
—Garth Phoebus
CBRNE Operations Officer, Fort Detrick, Frederick

I don’t think we’ll ever end our differences. In fact, these differences are what make humanity the wonderful mosaic that it is. Since John F. Kennedy, America has become a nation that celebrates diversity. This is our strength—and the businesspeople that fully embrace it will be the most successful in the 21st century.
—Henri Schauffler
Facilitator, CEO Focus, Rockville

Differences of opinion will always happen, which is not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, diversity of thought most often leads to the best decisions. Kennedy’s keen insight was that, given this reality, we need to be able to navigate the inevitable conflict that will ensue as strong opinions collide.
—Ed Robinson
Capacity Building Solutions, Inc. and Vistage Chair, Frederick

To me, diversity was an unknown commodity until I moved away from the Washington, DC, area to a part of the country that was not so diverse. Realizing that many areas of the country are predominantly one race, I truly appreciated growing up in Bethesda where my friends were from India, China, Hong Kong, Italy, Greece, and so on. I feel blessed to have had such a multicultural upbringing and so appreciative that my view is wide open.
—Tony Marciante
Chef/Owner, Visions Restaurant, Bethesda

For many people, diversity means illustrating and celebrating what makes us dissimilar from others. Perhaps just as important is having an open dialogue about what we all have in common and making an effort to find similarities among each other. Learning these things can create a safe environment to exchange ideas, understand different perspectives, and allows for meaningful, healthy debate over issues that tend to be divisive.
—Michelle Day
Dept. of Eco Dev, Frederick County

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