CBIA BizCast

CBIA’s BizCast team speaks with Michael Weinstock, M&T Bank’s Hartford regional president about the new initiatives the bank has implemented to support small businesses across Connecticut. “We’re committed to Connecticut because we believe it is a good place to live, to work, and a prime location for businesses to thrive,” Weinstock said.

CBIA's Bizcast team went to Pathways Academy in West Hartford where student interns presented projects to business clients, including Travelers and Hartford Healthcare.

CBIA’s BizCast team speaks with Keith Bishop, a fifth-generation owner and CEO of Bishop’s Orchards in Guilford. Bishop’s family started the farm in 1871, growing vegetables and producing dairy. It has since grown into a destination. The farm offers everything from apple and pumpkin picking, to wine tasting, and other entertainment. Bishop and his three children work full-time to help run the fami...

CBIA BizCast host Ali Warshavsky speaks with Sentry Commercial co-founder and president Mark Duclos about post COVID-19 trends in leasing large office and industrial spaces. Duclos said remote and hybrid work environments changed what large corporations needed for space. He said landlords of larger buildings now have to evaluate if they can rent out a full space to a single company, need to divide...

CBIA BizCast host Ali Warshavsky speaks with Oma’s Pride president and CEO Capri Brighenti and her son Adam DeJulius, the company’s COO. Brighenti said her grandmother, an entrepreneurial spirit, started the business in 1950 when she began selling eggs from the family’s Avon farm. Miller’s Food expanded to include the Oma’s Pride pet food brand in 2001. Keeping it in the family, DeJulius took over...

CBIA BizCast host Ali Warshavsky speaks with Bead Industries CEO Jill Mayer about the challenges of running a business in the post-pandemic world. Among those challenges is getting women back to the workplace, an issue with particular resonance at family run Bead, where women make up 60% of the workforce. As a mother, Mayer understands how tough it is to return to work after maternity leave and wa...

CBIA BizCast host Ali Warshavsky speaks with Candace Freedenberg, founder and chair of the woman-owned social enterprise Untapped Potential. Freedenberg says the organization works to remove barriers and create necessary stepping stones for women to get back into the workforce. “I looked at this as an economic opportunity,” said Freedenberg. “Whenever you have stagnated talent, a skilled workforce...

CBIA BizCast host Ali Warshavsky speaks with AI Engineers’ Kevin Hussain about the need to expand diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. Hussain, who is associate vice president of bridge inspections at the Middletown-based engineering firm, immigrated to the U.S. from the Caribbean. He chose to attend Capital Community College and the University of Hartford because each was affordable and...

CBIA BizCast host Ali Warshavsky speaks with Travis Christ, chief marketing officer for Avelo Air, about the airline maintaining its low-fare strategy as inflation drives up the cost of fuel and other supplies. Avelo launched in 2021 in Burbank, California, and made its maiden flight from Connecticut’s Tweed New Haven Airport last November. The demand was so high for the flights Avelo offered to s...

CBIA BizCast host Ali Warshavsky speaks with Paul Dunford, co-founder of Green Check Verified in North Haven. Green Check Verified helps provide cannabis banking solutions and expert advisory services for financial institutions. The company began exploring the industry in 2014 and noticed that firms didn’t know how to connect with banks who were willing to work with them. “The biggest thing we had...

CBIA BizCast host Ali Warshavsky speaks with John Walker, co-founder of Athletic Brewing in Stratford. Walker helped Bill Shuflet brew the original ales in 2017 when the avid athlete decided he wanted to enjoy a beer without worrying about alcohol affecting his performance the next day. Athletic Brewing was recently named to TIME’s list of the most influential companies, with Walker saying that th...

CBIA BizCast host Ali Warshavsky speaks with Terrence Cheng, president of the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities system. Cheng was previously the campus director of UConn Stamford. He said he took this role last July as it was a once in a lifetime opportunity to make a difference across the state, managing 12 community colleges, four state universities, and Charter Oak State College. As t...

CBIA BizCast host Ali Warshavsky speaks with Adam von Gootkin, co-founder and CEO of Highclere Castle Spirits. Gootkin and his family have distilled spirits since the 1800s in Connecticut. Their history inspired him to first create Onyx Spirits Company and now Highclere Castle Spirits. Highclere Castle Gin is distilled in England using botanicals from the Highclere Estate, but is headquartered in...

CBIA BizCast host Ali Warshavsky speaks with Shawn Peterson, direct to consumer business manager at the PEZ Visitor Center in Orange. Peterson’s passion for PEZ, collecting dispensers, and writing a book on the candy’s history brought him to Connecticut for a new career. He said the company offered him the role to create and oversee the center. Peterson said the visitor center attracts many people...

CBIA BizCast host Ali Warshavsky speaks with Shipman & Goodwin LLP’s Brenda Eckert, an employment and family immigration law attorney. Eckert participated on a panel at CBIA’s Economic Update conference last month that focused on the role immigration can play in helping address the labor shortage. She sees increasing competition for foreign workers, noting Connecticut can support immigration by im...

CBIA BizCast host Ali Warshavsky speaks with Karraine Moody, CEO of Habitat for Humanity of North Central Connecticut. The organization recently changed its name and now serves families east of the Connecticut River. Moody says Habitat does more than build homes, teaching people how to become homeowners while investing sweat equity and learning financial literacy. The organization's goal is to cre...

CBIA BizCast host Ali Warshavsky speaks with Jim Barger, market president of KeyBank, ahead of CBIA's April 21 Connecticut Economic Update, where he will make opening remarks. Barger said KeyBank has invested in several fintech companies to enhance the digital channels they have. Since the beginning of COVID-19, Barger said customers have become more reliant on digital banking and the bank is lear...

CBIA BizCast host Ali Warshavsky speaks with Jelan Agnew, a licensed clinical social worker and mindfulness instructor at Copper Beech Institute. Agnew began practicing mindfulness two minutes a day to help manage anxiety. She admitted it wasn’t easy at first but worked up to practicing for longer lengths of time, even completing a seven-day silent retreat. “What I love about mindfulness is there...

CBIA BizCast host Ali Warshavsky speaks with Melanie Hoben, director of workforce development at East Hartford-based Goodwin University. Goodwin is playing a key role leading workforce development initiatives, and is the only school in Connecticut to receive a U.S. Closing the Skills Gap Grant to upskill incumbent workers. In addition, Hoben said Goodwin uses a 44-foot trailer as a mobile lab to i...

CBIA BizCast host Ali Warshavsky speaks with Shipman & Goodwin attorney Keegan Drenosky about the challenges employers face in navigating the labor shortage. Drenosky says most employers are noticing job applicants looking for more than high salaries, with a good work-life balance also important. She notes that many jobseekers in the manufacturing industry are looking for a company that will upski...

CBIA BizCast host Ali Warshavsky speaks with CBIA's Eric Gjede about two important bills being debated this legislative session. Gjede said employers welcomed HB 5003, which directs additional federal pandemic relief funds toward paying down the state’s huge unemployment trust fund debt. “Until that debt is satisfied the business community will see higher and higher unemployment taxes each fall,”...

CBIA BizCast host Ali Warshavsky speaks with Ray Pineault, president and CEO of Mohegan Gaming and Entertainment. Pineault took over as interim CEO in 2021 after four years as general manager of the casino. He is also a Mohegan tribal member. The first legal sports bet placed in Connecticut was in September at Mohegan Sun, something Pineault said his team had been waiting to see at the casino for...

CBIA BizCast host Ali Warshavsky speaks to Penn Globe president Marcia LaFemia about her plans to transform a Fair Haven building into a manufacturing training center. LaFemina applied for a grant to rehabilitate a vacant building and create a place of opportunity struggling to find a career path in the area. If the grant is approved, she said Penn Globe employees, as well as other manufacturers i...

CBIA BizCast host Ali Warshavsky speaks with Hartford HealthCare president and CEO Jeff Flaks about the pandemic’s long-term impact on healthcare. Flaks says Hartford HealthCare is focused on challenging conventional thinking while using new technologies to better healthcare delivery in the state. “In healthcare, we don't want to go back to normal,” Flaks said. “We have to be better than normal. “...

CBIA BizCast host Ali Warshavsky speaks with Fran Pastore, CEO and founder of the Women’s Business Development Council and Rafia Zahir-Uddin, vice president for global philanthropy with JPMorgan Chase. Pastore and Zahir-Uddin discuss the long partnership between WBDC and JPMorgan Chase to support women-owned businesses across Connecticut. Pastore opened WBDC’s first checking account with a $60 dep...