“The Robert Morris University of the Northeast”

That is how RMU President Chris Howard often refers to his alma mater, now that he has had some time to get a feel for how the schools integrate with the academic and professional cultures of their respective cities.

That alma mater, from which Dr. Howard received his MBA?   Harvard.

And while Dr. Howard is the first one to admit he might be a bit biased in that assessment, as he sees it, it’s not really THAT big a stretch.  Having lived in both Boston and Pittsburgh, two of the premier markets in the world when it comes to their respective suite of colleges and universities, Dr. Howard has seen first hand how the variety of institutions in an area can be an invaluable asset to that region, in terms of providing places for students of that region to grow and thrive, and to fuel the pipeline for those students to be an impactful asset to local businesses upon graduation.

And while Harvard University’s reputation speaks for itself, Dr. Howard’s work in the two years since taking over as the eighth President in the history of Robert Morris University has done plenty of talking.  In a town where RMU had long taken a backseat to the likes of the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University in the hierarchy of academic institutions, Dr. Howard’s leadership has provided the school a significant boost in its status, ensuring RMU’s place front and center in the conversation about what Pittsburgh has to offer from an academic standpoint.

And it only stands to reason, as “leadership” has long been a calling card for Dr. Howard, a Rhodes Scholar.  While his MBA was from Harvard, he earned his undergraduate degree from the Air Force Academy, where he was Class President, and a cadet group commander.  In  addition, he excelled on the football field as well, becoming not only a First Team Academic All-American as a running back for the Falcons, but also the inaugural winner of the Campbell Trophy, the highest academic award given to a college football player, taking into account the combination of academics, community service, and on-field performance, paving the way for future Campbell winners like Peyton Manning and Tim Tebow.

After earning his MBA at Harvard, and his doctorate from Oxford, Dr. Howard served as a helicopter pilot in the Air Force before becoming an Intelligence Officer for the Joint Special Operations Command.  At the request of then-Defense Secretary William Cohen, Dr. Howard accompanied a 1999 U.S. military delegation to South Africa as an advisor., before returning to active duty a few years later in Afghanistan, for which he was awarded a Bronze Star.

And that leadership continues to this day in his role as President at RMU. Among the school’s initiatives since Dr. Howard took over is the upcoming development of an Energy Innovation Center in Uptown Pittsburgh, geared towards educating those who have lost their jobs or who have been displaced from other industries.  Also under Dr. Howard’s watch is the development of the UPMC Events Center, a state-of-the-art facility for not only the indoor sports teams, but also conferences and events, with the goal to make the RMU campus a destination for entertainment as well.  Plus, Dr. Howard has served as a champion for the school’s many veteran-based initiatives, from discounted MBA’s for members of nearby bases to programs aimed towards providing tuition-free education for veterans.

True to form, on this episode, our guest boasts one of the most inspirational stories (both individual AND war) most any of us have ever heard….not just in football….not just in sports…..but in life.  And it’s one that just about anybody that has grown up in Western Pennsylvania, especially those who root for the Black and Gold on Sundays…..seems like both groups are one and the same, right?…..knows by heart.

-Wisconsin born and bred

-Team Captain and National Champion at Notre Dame

-Drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers

-Drafted again after his rookie season….this time to serve in the U.S. Army in Vietnam

-Wounded by an enemy attack three months into his term of service, injuring both of legs to the point where he was told by doctors that he’d never play football again

-Fought back after a year of surgeries to rejoin the Steelers

-Became one of the star performers and team leaders during their “Super Steelers” run of four Super Bowl titles in the 1970′s,

It’s a story that, of course, belongs to Rocky Bleier, and one that was documented in one of the seminal autobiographies penned by an athlete in any sport, his 1975 book “Fighting Back”.  Hailed by critics at the time, it was turned into a successful made-for-TV movie five years later, with Robert Ulrich playing The Rock.

That telling of his story has defined him for over 40 years, but that IS a long time, and things HAVE changed.  A return visit to Vietnam has given him an added perspective on his own experiences.  Changes in both the health and social considerations of the game to which  he has devoted much of his professional life to have given him a fresh set of eyes on that as well.   As is the case with his former team as well, his friendship with Alejandro Villenueva, another Army vet-turned-Steeler has proven to be a special, “full-circle” bond in his life in 2018.

In 1910, brothers David and Jonathan Evans opened the doors of a steel manufacturing company in Ellwood City, PA.

That company’s name?  The Ellwood Group.

Its name is as simple and straightforward as their approach to business: maximizing their profits to reinvest in their business, their operations, and their people, to ensure they have the best tools, the best equipment, and the best materials and metals to achieve their goal.

It’s a leadership that truly reflects a family business, starting with the Evans Brothers, and continuing through five generations to present day with Chairman David Barensfeld, and one that remains on the forefront of entrepreneurship and business innovation, despite company tendencies that one might not typically associate with “cutting edge”.

Case in point 1: When the steel and manufacturing industries were dying off in Western Pennsylvania in the 1970′s and 1980′s, the Ellwood Group doubled down, increasing their footprint by investing in new facilities.

Case in point 2:  While other firms in manufacturing and other industries were selling out to private equity in order to thrive (and, in some cases, survive), or even going public, the Ellwood Group eschewed these approaches,  keeping the entirety of their common stock in the family (literally….35 family members hold all of the common stock), enabling all decision making to truly serve the best interest of the company, its customers, its people, and the communities in which they do business, in lieu of being beholden to those outside of the company.

When the new Pittsburgh International Airport opened to rave industry and consumer reviews in 1992, it provided a foundation for a new era of transportation, commerce, and economic development for Western Pennsylvania.

In the 26 years since then, one of the primary challenges facing local political and business leaders has been determining what sustainable steps must be taken in order to fulfill the vast potential of the Airport corridor, to provide a thriving area around the airport for transportation, employment, and infrastructure to thrive and grow.

Since December of 2017, that challenge has fallen squarely in the lap of veteran business leader Chris Heck, the President and CEO of the Pittsburgh Airport Area Chamber of Commerce.

The Chamber’s mission is to ensure that all 34 Pittsburgh-area communities, spanning from the Fort Pitt Tunnels all the way through Beaver County, are in the best position possible to grow and prosper as a result of the myriad opportunities presented by a (pardon the pun) top-flight airport.  An airport that, along with Allegheny County Airport, supports $29 billion in business revenue for the region, including employment numbers that well exceed 100,000 jobs.

No small task for Chris, to say the least.

And it never hurts to have a little bit of help in this endeavor.  October saw the development of the Airport Area Corporate Partnership, a groundbreaking organization in which the Chamber, along with Robert Morris University and the Allegheny County Airport Authority brought together over 30 of the region’s heaviest hitters in business and industry to come together as a single, undeniable voice of testimony to the corridor as a more than viable option for new business to thrive and prosper.

In just about any for-profit business, nothing stokes the burning desire to succeed greater than a little healthy competition.  Pushing you and your team to dig deeper, work harder, and overcome any obstacles that lay in the path.

It’s perfectly natural.  Innate, even.

But what if the end game of your company is something bigger, to serve the greater good?  And what if the steps you and your business alone are taking to achieve this purpose aren’t quite enough?

This was a dilemma that both the Western Pennsylvania Humane Society and the Animal Rescue League faced on their own for years.

As open-door animal shelters that welcome all manner of animals with all manner of backgrounds and individual situations, both organizations served the same purpose in Western Pennsylvania for decades.

And it was a simple purpose, geared to improving the lives of animals and humans alike:  give these animals a home.

But with the perpetual problem of animal population growth occurring at a higher rate than the ability to manage it, the efforts of both the WPHS and the ARL on their own weren’t quite enough to effectively tackle the issue.

So in a merger that took years of negotiation, but only months of execution, both groups finally merged in early 2017, combining everything from the top down, all the way down to their logo and new name,  Humane Animal Rescue, led by former ARL Executive Director Dan Rossi as its CEO.    Their new facility, a $15 million, 35,000 square-foot facility, is a state of the art venue that not only serves the group’s current needs in a way that would not have been possible pre-merger, but is designed in a way that also allows for substantial expansion in the decades to come.