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COMPANY HITS MILESTONE: Quality Switch, Inc. will celebrate 50 years March 2 with a reception at Roby Lee's Restaurant and Banquet Center in Newton Falls.
The event will host current and former employees, along with key suppliers and customers to celebrate the milestone.
Quality Switch also has been recognized by the Youngstown / Warren Regional Chamber with the first family-owned business growth award in 2022.
Quality Switch is a family-owned small business that designs and manufactures switches for use inside electrical transformers on utility power grids and in industrial power supplies. Its designs range from 100 to 3000 amperes and voltages from 600 volts to 345 kV, depending on the application.
To expand into higher voltage applications and to quickly test new / existing designs, Quality Switch opened the Horace H. Sewell High Voltage Testing & Research Center in 2016.
VALLEY PARTNERS TO HOLD EVENT: The Business Resource Center at Valley Economic Development Partners will host a financial literacy seminar 1 to 2:15 p.m. Feb. 22 at the Wean Foundation, 147 W. Market St., Warren.
The speaker is Anthony Clark, branch manager and assistant vice president at Huntington National Bank. The topic will be budgeting, saving and investing in your business.
RSVP by Feb. 20 to Matthew Longmire at matthew@valleyedp.com or 330-759-3668, ext. 111.
HOTEL RANKED BEST: The Courtyard Marriott Youngstown-Canfield was honored recently with a No. 1 ranking in the world in guest satisfaction surveys. Out of 1,100 Courtyard hotels worldwide the Canfield location consistently receives 9 or 10 star ratings.
For 2023, the Canfield Courtyard was awarded two high honors by Marriott International.
The Courtyard Canfield received the Diamond Circle award again for 2023, marking the sixth consecutive year since 2017 the hotel has received Marriott International's highest property-level award.
In addition, the Courtyard Canfield also received a Guest Service Satisfaction Award in Food and Beverage for its outstanding performance in the segment.
The Courtyard Marriott Youngstown-Canfield at Westford Lifestyle Community is the region's largest Marriott. It was developed by CTW Development Corporation in Boardman, one of the leading commercial and residential developers in the Mahoning Valley.
YSU AWARDED GRANT: Youngstown State University has been awarded $1.9 million through America Makes, the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute, and the Air Force Research Laboratory to investigate the repair process for tooling using an additive / subtractive (hybrid) process technology.
The project is a continuation of the hub-and-spoke consortium on hybrid manufacturing that has been active in the Youngstown area for the last several years.
Other project participants include the Manufacturing Demonstration Facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the University of Texas at El Paso, the Georgia Institute of Technology and the Youngstown Business Incubator.
The team will investigate different hybrid technologies based on wire, powder or a combination of both to repair metallic parts and tooling of interest to the industrial sector.
The award is being carried out in collaboration with Jackie Ruller, director of the Excellence Training Center at YSU, and John Carballo, machinist at ETC, as well as YSU STEM professors Brian Vuksanovich, Holly Martin, Virgil Solomon and Bharat Yelamanchi.
The project uses a laser hot wire cladding Directed Energy Deposition Mazak 3D printer, which was installed at YSU's ETC last year.
BOARDMAN SUBARU DONATES: To help local children in need, Boardman Subaru donated nearly 500 new coats to Youngstown Community School with the help of United Way of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley.
Ten Boardman Subaru employees volunteered with staff from the United Way to help children in grades kindergarten to four try on and pick out a coat.
The gift was made in partnership with Operation Warm, the nonprofit and new national Subaru partner, at a Subaru Loves to Help Gifting Event on Jan. 30 at Youngstown Community School.
TEDxYOUNGSTOWN ANNOUNCES SPEAKER LINEUP: TEDxYoungstown 2024 will feature 16 speakers, including several local people, March 8 at Youngstown State University's Bliss Hall.
The local speakers include Ayana Symone, an author and podcaster, who will share insights on overcoming a challenging past to embrace an abundant future; Devyn Bellamy, HubSpot senior marketing manager, who will discuss marketing insights he gained since creating his first website during the dial-up era; Jennifer Pintar, YSU assistant provost, who will explore the impact of generative AI on higher education; and Rachel Flickinger, a certified life and leadership coach, who will discuss unlocking the potential of great leadership through intuition.
The event also will showcase speakers from across the globe.
They include Curt Thomas, U.S. Air Force officer and author; Joe Weston, international trainer and author; Kassi Kincaid, creator of children's literacy program Book Days; Unni Turrettini, speaker and author; Zach Arend, former saddle bronc riding champion; Eric Hodgdon, grief coach and author; Reyne O’Shaughnessy, trailblazer and influencer in the aviation industry; Dianna Simonson, author and entrepreneur; Krishnni Khanna, a high school student and author; Molly Spearman, former South Carolina superintendent of education; Morgan Watt, U.S. Air Force first responder and member of the K9 explosive detection team; and Katy Stevens and Mo Barrett.
iSYNERGY PARTNERS WITH YBI: iSynergy, a digital marketing agency in Canfield, is teaming up with the Youngstown Business Incubator to provide free marketing advice to small business owners and entrepreneurs.
The company will hold marketing office hours 9 a.m. to 4 p.m Thursdays at the YBI. Small business owners and entrepreneurs can sign up for an hourlong slot to receive personal, one-on-one advice from marketing professionals at ybi.org/marketing-office-hours.
iSynergy's social media and email marketing employees will be at the YBI on the first Thursday of each month. The second Thursday of the month focuses on graphic design; the third pertains to search engine optimization; and the fourth focuses on website design and development.
People on the move
COMPANY NAMES BOARD CHAIRMAN: SolaBlock, the Pittsfield, Massachusetts-based solar technology company led by Mahoning Valley native Eric Planey, has named John O'Connor board chairman.
In 1997, O'Connor co-founded Oztek Corp to produce custom power-conversion solutions for original equipment manufacturers. More recently, he shifted company focus to standard power-conversion products and established Oztek as a leading battery inverter supplier for commercial and industrial energy storage applications. O'Connor served as CEO until 2023, when Oztek was sold to Trystar, LLC.
SolaBlock is fundraising its Series A round and is opening its first assembly facility in Pittsfield. The company anticipates its first product will be produced by the end of the first quarter of 2024.
It is coming to market with a building integrated photovoltaic construction and solar tech product that enables commercial building walls to become vertical solar systems.
FARMERS ADDS BANKER: Canfield-based Farmers National Bank has hired Mahoning Valley native Michael Olive to its commercial lending team as vice president, relationship manager out of Mahoning County.
Olive, originally from Lowellville, earned his bachelor's degree and MBA from Youngstown State University. He also has completed a commercial lending certificate through the American Bankers Association and graduated from the Shenango Leadership Program.
DOCTOR JOINS OFFICE: Dr. Chris Bobeczko has joined the staff at Sharon City Eyeworks.
Bobeczko graduated in 1996 from the Ohio State University with a doctor of optometry degree. He has served the community for the past 28 years, with eight of those years spent at J.C. Penney Optical in Hermitage, Pa.
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