UTICA — Mohawk Valley Community College’s (MVCC) recent sixth annual NanoDays and STEM Fest drew more than 300 people over two days.

On April 20, about 250 students from local elementary schools attended the event at the college’s Alumni College Center. On the following day, another 125 people attended, an MVCC spokesperson tells CNYBJ.

The NanoDays event brings university researchers and science educators together to “create new and unique learning experiences for students to explore the world of atoms, molecules, and nanoscale forces,” the college said. There were 14 displays at this year’s event, giving both children and adults a hands-on opportunity to check out science, technology, engineering, math, and nanotechnology. 

The event seeks to inspire young people to go on to pursue these fields when they go to college.

MVCC offers associate degrees in a number of STEM fields including chemical technology, semiconductor-manufacturing technology, mechanical engineering, and mathematics and science. 

UTICA — After nearly 40 years as president and CEO of Upstate Cerebral Palsy, Louis B. Tehan retired on May 1. Upon his retirement, Geno DeCondo, previously chief operating officer of Upstate Cerebral Palsy, assumed leadership of the agency as executive director. 

A native of Utica, Tehan joined Upstate Cerebral Palsy as executive director in 1979. At that time, the agency had a budget of $1 million with one building serving 450 individuals. Over the course of the next four decades, he paved the way for the rapid acquisition of new buildings and treatment sites, as well as the development of new programs across New York state, the organization said in a news release. 

With its first residence opening in 1986, the agency has since opened more than 50 additional sites for children and adults across seven counties and expanded services centered on individuals’ needs. 

“Tehan has been the voice for thousands of people with differing abilities who were unable to speak or advocate for their needs. Throughout his tenure, he has tirelessly advocated for increased supports for the people who receive Upstate Cerebral Palsy’s services. He also has lobbied for and is committed to supporting staff through increased wages for direct support workers,” Upstate Cerebral Palsy said.

“While I’ve learned many things over the past 39 years, I believe the most important lessons have come from the courageous pioneers that started our agency …” stated Tehan. “Our agency has matured as the leader of quality, individually based innovative services, and it is our honor and privilege to serve every person as if he or she were the only person receiving those services — for this I am so proud.”

DeCondo began his career with Upstate Cerebral Palsy in 2008 as the executive VP and later was named chief operating officer/chief financial officer in November 2016. In addition to handling an extensive budget across multiple affiliate agencies, he was executive director of Mohawk Valley Handicapped Services, Inc., an affiliate that served as a holding corporation for many Upstate Cerebral Palsy facilities, the release stated.

Upstate Cerebral Palsy is a provider of direct-care services and programs for individuals who are physically, developmentally, or mentally challenged, and their families. The organization generated nearly $86 million in total revenue in 2016.        

SYRACUSE — Helen Hanna Casey, CEO of Howard Hanna Real Estate Services, grew up in the business, earning her real-estate license when she was 18.

So did her brother and sister. “Our parents wanted us to do that as protection, in case something happened,” she recalls.

Casey chatted with CNYBJ on a recent visit to Syracuse.

They wanted the children prepared in case something happened to their father, Howard Hanna Jr., the founder and namesake of the real-estate services firm that began in 1957 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, she explains.

What happened was that he continued to grow the business, adding new services. In 1980, he added title insurance, she says. Within five years, the company had added mortgages and insurance to services offered by Howard Hanna.

In 1991, Casey was named president, part of a leadership team that includes her brother, Chairman Howard (Hoddy) Hanna III, and sister, Annie Hanna Cestra, the company’s executive VP and COO.

Their father, now 98, carries the title of founder and still visits company offices.

Howard Hanna Real Estate entered the Central New York real-estate market in 2016 with the acquisition of Realty USA. That was one of seven major acquisitions the firm has made in the past 15 years, Casey says. In addition, she says the firm has made 10 mid-sized acquisitions in the same period and, “a lot of smaller ones.”

Today, Howard Hanna Real Estate Services has 270 offices in eight states.

However, Casey points out, it’s not the number of offices that count in the business, it’s volume of sales in dollars and units that indicate the true of size of a real estate company. By number of units sold, Casey says, Howard Hanna is the third largest in the country. 

Others have higher sales when measured by dollars, because other markets have more expensive homes.

That’s a mixed blessing, she explains, because higher home prices mean there are more real-estate agents trying to make a living in the market and, “they are also higher-expense markets.”

In contrast, she says, “most of the cities we’re in are Rust Belt cities.” They are being restructured and rebuilt, she adds.

To find success in such markets, Howard Hanna has brought distinctive offerings, Casey says. She points to the firm’s money-back guarantee that applies to homes costing less than $700,000. That brings some comfort to skittish buyers, she says. (“Buyers above $750,000 don’t want a money back guarantee,” she adds. They are more confident about major purchases.)

Looking at trends, Casey sees some encouraging ones. First, the fear that real-estate agents would be swept aside by the Internet the way, say, travel agents have been, seems to have abated. In fact, she says a higher percentage of buyers and sellers are using real-estate agents than they were in 2004.

She thinks the difference might be that while you can buy something on the Internet and return it if not satisfied, that’s not so easy to do with a house.

What is most important to today’s consumers is customer experience, she says. That makes her company’s one-stop shopping model right for the times. “They don’t want to have to go through all the experiences.” Instead, she puts real-estate service alongside craft brewing and craft distilling, where consumers have shown a preference for a more personal touch.

She is also heartened by the way millennials are entering the housing market. Research shows they are buying homes looking to reach the same standard as their parents. They prefer walking neighborhoods, particularly before children arrive, she says. Later, they have the same concerns for “schools and backyards,” as past generations.

As for the future, while she and her brother and sister led the company into the 21st Century, Casey says there are already six members of the next generation of her family stepping into roles at the Pittsburgh–based company.

Most are moving into management positions, Casey says, some taking on roles made possible by the company’s continuing expansion. There is, she says, a succession plan in place to move leadership of the business her father founded 61 years ago to the next generation.

However, she adds that she and her siblings plan to stay involved. “We will never be retired in the sense that we don’t come into the office anymore.”