The Hatch 2014

Loren Branch is also head manager/video coordinator for the men’s basketball team and secretary for the Sport Management Alliance. His career goals are to become a college basketball coach and entrepreneur. After graduation, he plans to pursue an MBA while working as a graduate assistant in a college basketball program.

Loren explains, “My idea is for a Detroit brand of clothing that will successfully strike the balance between producing fashionable clothing and a being a charitable brand. The brand will feature an exclusive line of pocketed t-shirts that will be designed with unique and creative artwork not available with any other brands. In addition, a percentage of the revenue earned will be donated to various Detroit-based charities and organizations in order to ‘reVITALize The D One Pocket at a Time."

Nicole Braxton's professional and personal experiences include internships, studying abroad and working in marketing and sales. She has interned at CACI-Inc. as a Buyer, worked as brand ambassador and marketing manager at Marketing Werks and studied cross-cultural business at Hong Kong Baptist University. Nicole has traveled around the world to places such as the Philippines and Beijing.

 “Through these new experiences, I yearned for a stronger relationship with God. During this time, I learned about the Sabbath day in depth. These findings, along with my experiences traveling abroad, inspired the idea for an internationally themed establishment, incorporating both international cuisine and entertainment. My concept is called Around the World in 7 Days!” comments Braxton.

Alan Eschweiler was in his dorm room watching CNBC one morning when they were discussing new Bluetooth technology that could sense distance within a few feet. 

Remembering his experience with text alerts for sales at stores he was no longer close to, he began to wonder if this new technology could be used to target customers that would actually be able to take advantage of the sales.  His Hatch idea was born.

“I am incredibly excited for the opportunity that the College of Business is providing me and the other eleven participants. The College of Business promised us opportunities that would set us apart from other business students around the country, and I believe they have delivered. Having this program to talk about during interviews has definitely set me apart from other applicants,” states Eschweiler. 

His goal is to run his business full-time after graduation; he is also interested in Wall Street and the Private Equity Sector.

Caitlin Flack is multi-talented: a dean’s list student, marathon runner and student athlete. Caitlin has played key roles in several campus organizations including the Student Athlete Advisory Committee, Public Relations Student Society of America and the National Society of Leadership and Success.

Caitlin’s Hatch idea is a device to charge a cell phone while shopping in grocery stores. “With a small device and the power of kinetic energy, you’ll be able to shop while charging your cell phone. Believe it or not, this idea came to me while I was running – let’s just say training for a marathon gives you a lot of time to think,” states Flack.

Taylor Frazer came up with the idea when he was studying for an exam. He wanted to highlight his textbook, but since it was a rental he couldn’t mark it.

Taylor is very thankful for the opportunity to participate in The Hatch and can’t wait until the presentation in April.  He enjoys working out at the BGSU Student Recreation Center and hopes to start his own business after graduation.

Stefan Grdic moved to the U.S. in 1995. His family currently lives in Brunswick Hills, Ohio.  Stefan speaks fluent Serbian and also has several years of Spanish under his belt. He was the captain of the varsity swim team in high school and still enjoys swimming and other active sports like running and snowboarding.

Stefan says, “I’m very interested in business and aspire to own my own company where I hope to make a positive impact in the community.”  

Grant Kirkey loves working on cars, gyros and spending time with friends and family--especially when food and tailgating is involved. This inspired his Hatch idea: a disposable plate that is designed to also hold a cup.

Grant is full of ideas and is passionate about renovating a product that has not reached its full potential and plans on pursuing a Masters of Business in addition to starting his own company.

Angela Lucarelli is an enthusiastic and outgoing. Being a young entrepreneur who loves fashion and the corporate world, her idea to create a professional clothing rental business for college scholars seemed like the perfect idea.

Her vision is to make it easier for students to gain access to appropriate interview attire without having to pay the expensive store prices. Most college students are on tight budget and find it difficult to afford these clothes. This enterprise would provide undergraduates an inexpensive way to rent professional clothing as needed.  

She enjoys spending time with family and friends, working with children and helping out in her community.  She hopes to see her vision come to life while making enjoyable memories and life-long friends through the process.

Sara Scacchi enjoys being involved with her fraternity Delta Sigma Pi and playing basketball. After graduation, Sara hopes to have her own business started through the Hatch. Passionate about art, Sara’s Hatch idea is geared toward artists. 

“Every artist has this issue when drawing with graphite, pastel or other messy mediums and there is nothing on the market to put an end to it! I want to change that, I want to make my life and the lives of every other artist easier. That is also why I am including a detachable and refillable eraser. It will allow the artist to fix their mistakes without having to drop what they're doing. I came up with this idea just by doing what I love to do—draw!” comments Scacchi.

Morgan Smith has been riding horses before she was able to walk. She competes in barrel racing and pole bending.

Inspired by the frustration that is the guessing game of finding a free washing machine in her residence hall, she came up with a solution: a mobile application that would allow students to check the availability of washers and dryers in a laundry room and, if occupied, learn how much longer until they are free. 

She plans on having the application designed so it would allow students to set a timer and alert them when they need to switch their clothes from the washer to the dryer and when their clothes finish drying. 

Robert Striblen is an Armed Forces Veteran of the United States Navy where he served as a Satellite Intelligence Imagery Analyst. He fought in Kosovo, Iraq, and Afghanistan. 

Robert is passionate about his idea because its application is universal and original. The idea was born from the need to make the relocation or moving process more convenient and comfortable.

When Robert is not attending school and working, he enjoys spending time with his family, visiting museums and studying art history. Robert intends on becoming a corporate executive after graduation and hopes to develop leadership programs for businesses, corporations and the government.

Jerrod Witt enjoys playing golf and spending time with family and friends. He plans on developing his device so that it can be used not only by the visually impaired but also in the tourism industry.

“With the RFID location device, I hope to improve the lives of many people that are less fortunate than myself. I came up with the idea after seeing multiple braille signs that were in obscure places and I thought to myself, ‘There has got to be something better,’” states Witt.

Early in his career he became the company’s youngest Regional Vice President at the age of thirty. Three years later, Mr. Fisch was elevated to the Seagram Corporation’s largest spirit unit, The Seagram Distillers Company, managing its most profitable Eastern Division based in New York.

In 1989, Mr. Fisch was promoted to Senior Vice President Central Division based in Chicago of the newly created House of Seagram, which managed the corporation’s entire spirits portfolio where he developed and oversaw aggressive growth and increased market share within the industry.

In 1991 he returned to New York to oversee The House of Seagram’s most profitable spirits unit; the Atlantic-Pacific region. In 1993, Mr. Fisch was appointed as President of the Seagram Beverage Company. During his tenure, he created and initiated a strategic plan to expand the company into the high-end craft and imported beer sectors, while at the same time, recreating the company’s flagship Seagram Cooler portfolio of brands.

In 1997, Mr. Fisch left the large corporate environment to follow his vision as market innovator in the premium high-end beer business. Mr. Fisch formed United States Beverage, LLC, a company whose strategic platform was to gain a leadership position within the growth end of the beer industry; crafts and imported brands.

U.S. Beverage reached $100 million in sales by the year 2004 and positioned itself among the leading independent beer companies in America. The company attained a well-respected reputation through the acquisition, repositioning, brand building and importation of premium brands.

Today, under Mr. Fisch’s leadership, U.S. Beverage has attained world-wide recognition as a top marketing and sales organization in the premium malt beverage industry. With a distribution network operating in fifty states, the US Beverage portfolio of premium brands has attained nationwide attention by providing the US consumer with a variety of premium imported beers as well as national and regional craft beer brands. With its financial partners, Grupo Damm of Barcelona, Spain, and business partners throughout the world, U.S. Beverage, LLC is entering its next phase of business expansion.

Mr. Fisch resides in New Canaan, Connecticut with his wife Gayle. Both are 1971 graduates of Bowling Green State University. They have three children; Justin, Director of Marketing and Sales Strategy at U.S. Beverage, Candace, Lauren, and two grandchildren.

In addition, she is a founding member of X2 Angels, an angel-investing group formed to focus on companies in the United States with women in C-suite positions. Mirjana is also a members of both the Board of Managers of AMT Systems and the Tech Columbus Advisor/Mentor Team. She is an examiner for The Partnership for Excellence administering the Baldrige-based business assessment process for Ohio, Indiana and West Virginia. Prior to Orion Consulting, Mirjana spent 29 years at Eaton PLC in Dublin, Ireland where she was involved with plant operational excellence initiatives, business and operations and acquisition-integration.

Ben’s primary role relates to plan design, strategic planning, compliance and contract negotiations with clients.  He is instrumental in providing awareness and education about market trends and reform to both his clients and the community at large.  His clients represent a broad range of markets from small employers to large, multi-state organizations with more than 500 employees.

He graduated from Bowling Green State University in 1983 with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, specializing in Insurance & Risk Management.

Ben has served as the Past Legislative Chairman for the Ohio Health Underwriters Association, Past President of the Northwest Ohio Better Business Bureau and numerous advisory positions to insurance carriers, medical providers and media groups.  Currently, Ben is a prominent health care reform educator in the Northwest Ohio area and serves as a regional Co-Chair on Brown & Brown’s National Employee Benefits Steering Committee.

Earle began his career with RCA where he held Senior Executive positions in Sales, Marketing and General Management. He was responsible for revitalizing RCA’s Consumer Services business, expanding RCA’s Commercial Television business and leading the development of new business ventures into communications and services businesses.

Prior to joining ValueClick, Earle embarked in the investment industry with GT Capital Management, Inc. Initially he was responsible for developing GT Capital’s Institutional Business and later he assumed responsibilities as Chief Operating Officer for the GT Global Mutual Funds.

After successfully completing the ValueClick IPO, Earle returned to the investment industry as President and CEO of HighMark Capital Management, Inc., a wholly-owned registered investment advisory firm of Union Bank located in San Francisco. During his tenure, Earle was Chairman of HighMark’s Board of Directors, President of HighMark Funds and a Trustee of the HighMark Funds Board. In addition, he was a member of HighMark’s Investment Policy Committee and a member of Union Bank’s Fiduciary Management Committee.

Since retiring from an active senior executive role in 2012, Earle has been devoting his time to entrepreneurial, consulting and advisory activities through NVMLI, Inc., his private investment company. He serves as a member of the Service Marketing Institute Business Advisory Board for the College of Business Administration at Bowling Green State University (BGSU). He was one of five inaugural alumni investors in BGSU’s entrepreneurial program, “The Hatch”, a college version of the television show “Shark Tank”.

Earle earned his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration in 1971 from Bowling Green State University. In 2008, he was honored as one of BGSU’S Accomplished Graduates from the College of Business. He has been named to Who’s Who in Finance and Industry.

Prior to this, Brian served as Vice President of Marketing at Loctite and was responsible for the commercialization of automotive aftermarket products in international markets. Brian also served as president of Blue Coral, a privately held auto appearance products business and was a corporate executive with Quaker State Oil Company where he oversaw the merger and acquisition of four consumer products businesses.

In his career, Brian invented or co-invented six patented appearance products. Brian earned an MBA from Bowling Green State University in 1982.

Alicia is also the Executive Director of WEN, Women's Entrepreneurial Network. WEN is a business networking community in Toledo that is dedicated toward helping more men and women find the support they need to run and maintain a successful business. 

Her career began at Pfizer Pharmaceuticals where Alicia won awards for her sales performance and was honored with opportunities to work at their training and development center their headquartered in New York City. Alicia's ongoing promotions at Pfizer allowed her the experience needed to eventually start her own business. 

Alicia also sits on the board of Leadership Toledo and is actively involved in many community nonprofit events. She is married to John Wagner and has a little girl, Alivea. Alicia's goal in life is to pave the way for greater female involvement in management and leadership roles within Corporate America.

Al currently serves as Chief Executive Officer of Century Marketing Corporation Group, Bowling Green, Ohio, one of the largest tape, label and tag converter businesses in the United States. His companies manufacture a wide array of print and recycling materials and systems, including food date coding systems, a printing equipment supplier of thermal and laser printers, and print holograms.

Al serves on numerous boards, including New Hope Christian Community Foundation, Bowling Green Covenant Church, and the Juvenile Residential Center of Northwest Ohio. He is also currently a Dean’s Council representative and a member of the College of Business Alumni Advisory Board. He is an avid supporter of numerous community organizations, including Bowling Green Bobcat Hockey, and Adopt America Network.

Over the years Art has led business turnarounds, successfully guided the acquisition of numerous companies, opened new clubs, developed and implemented new management systems and created multi-year reinvestment plans resulting in the deployment of several hundred million dollars of capital.

Paul's tireless focus to develop new business and his attention to details have established SFERRA's leadership position in the luxury linens industry and galvanized the company's emergence into the new global economy. Today SFERRA presents the most comprehensive range of luxury home textiles for the bed, bath and table worldwide.

Paul umpires varsity high school baseball and was the varsity baseball coach at Red Bank Catholic High School from 1974-2000. In 1990 Paul, along with his wife Margo, founded a not-for-profit sports program for children with disabilities he named Challenged Youth Sports. Today, CYS assists over 150 families with programs in basketball, soccer, Little League softball, golf, flag football and tennis. Paul is hoping to sell his business this year, as he wants to take CYS national, making his volunteer run program available to children with special needs nationwide.

Prior to launching his own company, Jack was a Senior Vice President for Capital One, responsible for developing the bank’s branch strategy for small business and investments.  Previously he was the Sales & Service Executive for the New York Metropolitan Market, responsible for the development and execution of strategic sales and service initiatives across 360 branches.

Prior to joining Capital One, Jack was a Senior Executive for Omega Performance, a consulting and training company focused on the banking industry. Here he helped banks develop and implement sales management routines and sales processes that delivered double digit improvement. Jack began his banking career with Chemical Bank responsible for developing a sales culture for the retail bank. During his career he led multiple organizations as Chemical Bank merged with Manufacturers Hanover and Chase Manhattan Bank.

Jack also enjoyed a seventeen-year career with the IBM Corporation where he held successive leadership positions across sales and staff organizations. Experience included new product launches, organization design, and sales leadership positions for new business sales teams and major account teams across financial services, insurance and medical industries.

Jack serves on the Board of Trustees as Treasurer for the Community Blood Center and its Foundation. He is also treasurer of Five Brothers Fraternity, an alumni organization supporting Sigma Alpha Epsilon’s undergrads.

John's experience includes a broad international exposure. From 1974 through 1979 he served in Belgium as the marketing and sales manager of a foreign subsidiary of the company. Since then he has been involved in a number of international initiatives including the acquisition and divestiture of Libbey Canada, as well as the creation of Libbey’s joint venture in Mexico in 1997. Additionally his acquisition and divestiture experience includes businesses in Belgium, Canada, England and Japan. He has served on the Boards of Directors of businesses in Belgium, Canada, Japan and Mexico.

He has had extensive interaction in Washington on international trade matters during his career; most notably concerning NAFTA, WTO, and GSP proceedings. Additionally he has had varied experiences with regulatory agencies including the FDA and the FTC.

In addition to his past duties as Chairman & CEO of Libbey Inc., he currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Applied Industrial Technologies, as a member of the Board of Directors of Cooper Tire and Rubber Co. and also is an emeritus Board member of his alma mater, Wittenberg University.

Meier is a 1969 graduate of Wittenberg University and holds an MBA from Bowling Green State University. Currently he serves as an adjunct professor in the MBA program of Bowling Green State University. He and his wife, Ann, have two grown children.

Mariana’s entrepreneurship journey began in 2003 when her husband moved forward with his life-long dream to open a restaurant. On Black Friday of 2003, Naslada Bistro opened its doors in the food court of Woodland Mall. The business started on a shoe string.  Three years later, Mariana and Boby relocated the restaurant to their current location on 182 South Main Street, in Downtown, Bowling Green after they built the restaurant’s kitchen.

As the support person in the endeavor, she managed bookkeeping, financials, tax filing and payroll until the business grew large enough to support the expense of accounting service. She also worked with her husband to build the brand customers see today. Mariana and her husband Boby recently celebrated 10 years in business in a very competitive industry where only 3% of the businesses survive past the first two years.

Together Mariana and Boby have two young children.

Alicia is also the Executive Director of WEN, Women's Entrepreneurial Network. WEN is a business networking community in Toledo that is dedicated toward helping more men and women find the support they need to run and maintain a successful business. 

Her career began at Pfizer Pharmaceuticals where Alicia won awards for her sales performance and was honored with opportunities to work at their training and development center their headquartered in New York City. Alicia's ongoing promotions at Pfizer allowed her the experience needed to eventually start her own business. 

Alicia also sits on the board of Leadership Toledo and is actively involved in many community nonprofit events. She is married to John Wagner and has a little girl, Alivea. Alicia's goal in life is to pave the way for greater female involvement in management and leadership roles within Corporate America.

Mr. Weller is a member of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers (ACREL) and is a past president. He is a past chair of the Texas State Bar Real Estate, Probate and Trust Law Section and was awarded the Distinguished Texas Real Estate Lifetime Achievement Award by that section in 2011. He is also a member of the American College of Mortgage Attorneys, the Anglo-American Real Property Institute and the Urban Land Institute.

Mr. Weller is recognized as the Go-To Lawyer in Real Estate Law in Texas Lawyer’s Go-To Guide 2012, is listed in The Best Lawyers in America for real estate and has been named the Best Lawyers' 2010 Dallas Real Estate Lawyer of the Year. Mr. Weller has repeatedly been named a Texas Super Lawyer. In 2007, Lawdragon named him among the Lawdragon 500 Dealmakers in America. He is cited in the Guide to the World's Leading Real Estate Lawyers, the International Who's Who of Real Estate Lawyers and the International Who's Who of Business Lawyers and Texas Monthly has named him one of the Top 100 Attorneys in Texas.

Ed retired in 2012 as senior vice president and chief financial officer of Owens-Illinois, Inc. (NYSE: OI) after 38 years of service.  Ed started with O-I in 1973 and held a multitude of financial, manufacturing and marketing positions in many locations, including St. Louis, Baltimore, Charlotte, Chicago and Boston.  His international experience included various senior management positions in China, Finland, Poland, France and Switzerland.  Before joining O-I, White served as a Captain in the U.S. Army.

Ed is a director on the board of the NW Ohio American Red Cross. A native of Big Rapids, Mich., White holds a bachelor's degree from Indiana University and an MBA from the University of Hawaii.