CNY Construction Projects 2015

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In the past year, numerous commercial construction projects — some just started, some ongoing, and some completed — give evidence to the fact that Central New York is still building and growing. They include the retail, hospitality, education, health care, municipal, nonprofit, and sports sectors. See what Central New York is building. Projects are arranged […]

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i3 Electronics projects 15 percent revenue growth

Manufacturing & Engineering, Small Business, Subscriber Only, Technology

ENDICOTT — In mythology, a phoenix is a bird that is periodically reborn, rising from the ashes of its predecessor. It is the symbol of renewal. i3 Electronics, Inc. is the successor to Endicott Interconnect Technologies (EIT), which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2013. The company continues as a vertically integrated manufacturer of

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ENDICOTT — In mythology, a phoenix is a bird that is periodically reborn, rising from the ashes of its predecessor. It is the symbol of renewal.

i3 Electronics, Inc. is the successor to Endicott Interconnect Technologies (EIT), which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2013. The company continues as a vertically integrated manufacturer of high-performance, electronic-packaging products. Its services include the design and fabrication of printed circuit boards and advanced semiconductor packaging, turnkey services for printed circuit board and integrated-circuits assembly and testing, systems integration, and advanced-laboratory services.

“We serve a variety of markets: aerospace and defense, medical, communications, computing, and industrial. Where A&D (aerospace and defense) once represented the bulk of our business, 50 percent of our revenues now come from the high-performance computing and medical fields,” says Robert L. Nead, company president. “Our technology can be found in the world’s fastest supercomputers; life-saving medical devices (pacemakers, defibrillators, X-ray machines, CT scanners, patient-monitoring systems); complex imaging systems; mission-critical defense applications (avionics, electronic warfare, sensor systems, unmanned systems, intelligence and surveillance); and many other products. The customer base includes high-profile companies such as IBM, Cisco, Northrop Grumman, Department of Defense, St. Jude Medical, and Siemens.”

i3 Electronics currently employs between 415 and 420 people, according to James T. Matthews, Jr., CEO, “and is in the process of hiring another 10. We have one location here at the Huron Complex in Endicott where we lease 800,000 square feet. Last year, the company generated about $80 million in revenue.” Five members of the Matthews family and the estate of Matthews’ father comprise the corporate stockholders.

Reorganization

“Since reorganizing the company, our goal has been to right-size the firm and be competitive,” says Nead. “We needed to stabilize our operation and convince both the employees and our customers that our strategic plan is working. One of our major expenses was the fact that, in 2013, EIT was leasing 1.2 million square feet with a very high energy cost. Much of our effort has been to right-size the facility. Within the next 18 months, we expect to further reduce our footprint from 800,000 to 400,000 square feet. This right-sizing effort has helped to put us on a very competitive footing.”

The reorganization also included a major investment to make the operation more efficient. “Our capital investment from 2013 to 2016 will total $10 million,” notes Matthews. i3 Electronics has run a three-shift operation, 7 days a week, since November 2014.

Highly competitive fields

“This is a very competitive business,” opines Nead. “We compete with a number of international firms in all of our fields. To stay ahead of the competition, we focus on the technology that we put into our products and on their reliability. The fact that we are vertically integrated means that we understand all aspects of making the product and offer a quicker time-to-market for our customers. R&D is at the center of our efforts to reduce the size, weight, and power consumption of our products.

That’s why we employ close to 10 percent of our workforce in that area.”

i3 Electronics holds 107 patents.

“The effort is paying off,” affirms Matthews. “We have stabilized the company and both diversified and expanded our activity and customer base. The confirmation comes from long-term, contract renewals.”

Matthews and Nead ascribe much of the company’s reorganization success to its leadership team. In addition to Matthews and Nead, Jim Thornton is vice president of operations; Mike Cummings is director of engineering; and Matt Neely is the engineering manager. i3 Electronics also recognizes support from professional-service companies: M&T Bank for financial-services support and Davidson Fox & Company, LLP for accounting.

But the CEO and president reserve special recognition for the company’s employees. “We have an exceptional talent base of engineers, scientists, innovators, and operators” stresses Nead, “that we draw on largely from the local community. We collaborate closely with area institutions of higher education, such as Binghamton [University]. The company has had a successful summer-internship program that goes back 20 years. The talent here at i3 Electronics really gives us a competitive edge.”

The company has growth on its mind now that it has righted the operational ship.

“Now that we have stabilized the company and reduced our cost of operation, our strategy is to grow our customer base, revenues, and profit,” states Matthews. “We no longer rely heavily on revenues from large projects in the aerospace and defense industry. To use a baseball analogy, it’s clearly better to rely on hitting singles and doubles consistently rather than to rely on home runs for our success. Our strategic plan calls for organic growth going forward, but we are always looking at opportunities to grow through mergers and acquisitions, if the fit is right. In fact, we have already looked at a few and elected not to proceed. The future is bright: Robert and I are confident that by 2016, i3 Electronics is poised to grow at a 15 percent, annual compounded rate.”

Nead has a bachelor’s degree in material science and metallurgical engineering from the University of Cincinnati and an MBA from Dunchurch College in Warwichshire, England. He has more than 30 years of technical and managerial experience working mostly in regulated industries such as the telecommunications and medical fields. His former employers include Atlantic Inertial Systems, Goodrich Corp., GEC Marconi, and International Harvester.

Endicott Interconnect Technologies was formed in 2002 to buy the electronic-packaging business from IBM Corp. The severe recession of 2008 caught the company overly dependent on major contracts with the U.S. Department of Defense and some of its vendors. EIT suffered cumulative, financial losses of $100 million from 2009 to 2012 and filed for bankruptcy protection on July 10, 2013. Papers filed with the court showed assets of $36 million and liabilities of $86.9 million. On Sept. 26 of that year, Integrian Holdings, LLC, a corporation owned by J.T. Matthews, Jr., purchased EIT’s assets by assuming $15 million of secured debt and paying $1.5 million to creditors and another $2.4 million for EIT’s expenses. The purchase was approved by the court on Nov. 1. As recently as 2012, EIT employed 1,000 people and generated $250 million in annual revenue.

While mythology describes the phoenix as a bird of renewal, the Book of Job also calls the phoenix a bird of long life. Matthews and Nead are convinced i3 Electronics is both.

Editor’s note: CNYBJ spoke with Nead and Matthews on Feb. 10. On March 3, the company announced in a letter to employees that Nead is stepping down from his position as president, effective March 6, now that the company’s “turnaround is complete.” Matthews assumes the president’s post in addition to his current CEO job.

Be Heard: Consensus Seeks Input on Future of Governance in Onondaga County

Opinion, Subscriber Only

New York is well known for government. We have lots of it. Central New York is no exception, and that’s why I’m proud that Onondaga County is the first in the state to examine whether we have the best structure and the best practices for our governance. Together, we have a unique opportunity to shape

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Consensus, the commission on local government modernization, has released its “Preliminary Baseline Review: Who Does What & What it Costs” and is about to kick off a series of vital community conversations about the future of local governance. I strongly encourage you to join Consensus on Wednesday, March 11, from 12:15 to 1:30 p.m. at the City Hall Commons Atrium for this kick-off event to share your thoughts and perspectives. This session will feature a special presentation by Dr. Joseph Stefko, CEO of the Center for Governmental Research, detailing the commission’s findings on Onondaga County’s local government structure, costs, and benefits.

Through the work of Consensus, this community is undertaking the most honest of civic self-examinations and our recommendations will serve as a blueprint for other communities across the state.

I would like to thank the Consensus co-chairs, Neil Murphy, former president of SUNY-ESF; Catherine Richardson, retired attorney from Bond, Schoeneck & King, PLLC; James Walsh, former U.S. Congressman, and government affairs counselor at K&L Gates LLP. The work that they and other commission partners have completed to date is significant, and they remain committed to creating an inclusive process that engages all of our community stakeholders.

At the end of this year, Consensus will release its full set of recommendations. We all share a stake in those outcomes and therefore have a responsibility to be active participants in this process. If you cannot attend a public meeting, you can still share your priorities and ideas for improvement by emailing the commission at info@consensuscny.com.

Robert M. Simpson is president and CEO of CenterState CEO, the primary economic-development organization for Central New York. This editorial is drawn and edited from the “CEO Focus” email newsletter the organization sent out on Feb. 26.

——————————————————————————————————————-

Did you know Onondaga county has?

– One city, 15 villages, and 19 town government entities

– 36 elected executives and 174 elected legislators

– 28 justice courts: 19 town and 9 village

– Three property-tax-assessment units merged into “Coordinated Assessment Programs” (Camillus/Elbridge, Fabius/Pompey, Lysander/VanBuren)

– 17 property-tax-assessment units, based primarily at the town and city level

– 58 fire departments with coverage areas ranging from 1 to 38 miles

– 36 public works departments; the smallest is responsible for one mile of road; the largest 794 miles

– Onondaga County is highly interconnected — 69 percent of residents commute every day to a different community for work

Job One of our Public Figures is to Lie to You

Opinion, Subscriber Only

Now, you could get upset over all the whoppers that public figures fling at you. You could proclaim that evil abounds across the fruited plain. Or, you could become philosophical. The way we did at one of the world’s greatest schools of philosophy — my father’s saloon: the Empire Hotel. I call it the

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Now, you could get upset over all the whoppers that public figures fling at you. You could proclaim that evil abounds across the fruited plain.

Or, you could become philosophical. The way we did at one of the world’s greatest schools of philosophy — my father’s saloon: the Empire Hotel. I call it the University of Bulltweedie.

I am serious. You can spit, sputter, and rail about the lies. You can get angry about the fact that public figures seem to think that job one is to lie to you. Your president lies to you. Your former secretary of state does. So many politicians do. So many senior bureaucrats do. And, your TV news people also lie.

The list is endless. The current attorney general of Massachusetts told whoppers about his time in Vietnam. The head of the Veterans Administration lied about serving in the Special Forces. The vice president has lied about any number of trivial things for years. Senator Elizabeth Warren lied about her Native American roots. Governors and other major figures have listed degrees they never earned

Recently, we discovered New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo arranged for all state worker emails to vanish. Purge them all after 90 days. And gee, he just happened to set that policy weeks before he created the Moreland Commission. That’s the outfit that would look into corruption in state government. Of course, it would want to look into emails. The very emails the governor flushed down the e-toilet.

Why did he do this? To improve efficiency. So sayeth his spokesperson. Now, that would never pass the Bulltest at the Empire Hotel. For two simple reasons: The state has computer capacity to store all employee emails for 30 years. And the purging of emails has to cause havoc in any operation.

Back to the growing list of liars. You have to wonder if everybody lies to you. And, my suggestion comes straight from the Empire Hotel. Don’t wonder if everybody lies. Assume they all do.

One of the regulars was a guy we called Uncle Jack. He carried a bag of golf clubs in the trunk of his car. He told us how he attacked the long fairways at a famous course. And how he blasted out of the sand traps at another.

The problem was: Uncle Jack never played a round of golf in his life. We knew all golfers lie. Uncle Jack lied about being a lying golfer. Lying for him was par for the course.

I said that was a problem. I lie. It was not a problem — because we knew he lied. About his job, his women, his travels etc. He lied about it all.

We also knew a guy named Conrad lied. If you said anything, Conrad had to top you. You climbed Mt. Everest? “Hey, I did it blindfolded,” he’d say. You won a hundred bucks in the lottery? “That’s nothin.’ I won 30,000. Twice!,” Conrad would proclaim.

Now, we could have fretted about this. Actually “fretted” is too delicate a word for a saloon. We could have gotten snarky. We could have blasted these guys as friggin’ bald-faced liars. But, that would have tootled us down the lane to Ulcer land.

We took a healthier route. We assumed the taproom of the Empire Hotel was knee-deep in BS. We assumed most everything we heard in there was less than the truth. What happened in the Empire stayed in the Empire. Because, if you talked about it outside the Empire, nobody would believe you.

So, the next time the lies from public figures get you down, I suggest you remember the Empire Hotel. Remember the pearls of wisdom learned and earned within its smoke-encrusted walls. Ask yourself: What would the regulars down at the Empire do at this stage?

The answer is always the same. They would roll their eyes. And order another round. And, ask who’s payin’ for it.

From Tom…as in Morgan.

Tom Morgan writes about political, financial, and other subjects from his home near Oneonta, in addition to his radio shows and TV show. Contact him at tomasinmorgan@yahoo.com

Gaetano helps build new sports complex in Whitesboro

Construction, Design & Real Estate, Regional News

WHITESBORO — Accelerate Sports Complex, a 96,000-square-foot, multi-purpose indoor sports facility, has opened at 5241 Judd Road in Whitesboro. The facility includes a full-size

Syracuse University Chancellor Kent Syverud reacts to NCAA report

Health Care

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Syracuse University (SU) took issue with “certain findings” in the report that the NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions released on Friday,

Syracuse basketball’s NCAA sanctions include scholarship losses, financial penalties, Boeheim suspension

Health Care, Sports, Entertainment & Tourism

The NCAA has placed the Syracuse University (SU) men’s basketball and football programs on a five-year probation, suspended basketball head coach Jim Boeheim for nine

Empire Farmstead Brewery to operate tax-free in START-UP NY program, create 52 jobs

Manufacturing & Engineering, Small Business

CAZENOVIA, N.Y. — Empire Farmstead Brewery, Inc., a division of Syracuse–based Empire Brewing Company, is among 11 businesses that are either starting under or expanding

New York jobless claims fall to a four-month low

Construction, Design & Real Estate, Employee Benefits & Human Resources, Manufacturing & Engineering

The number of people filing initial applications for unemployment benefits in New York state declined more than 12 percent to 17,494 in the week ending

RBC Wealth Management names Sears director of Syracuse branch

Banks & Credit Unions

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — RBC Wealth Management announced it has appointed Brewster Sears as the new branch director of its Syracuse–area office. RBC’s Syracuse branch is

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