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Entrepreneur grows local autism center: With new building, center looks to triple in size

He started his own business and has grown it 17 percent a year. Now, Indianapolis entrepreneur Jeff Medley is using his know-how to ramp up a not-for-profit autism therapy center he helped found in the summer of 2003. As president of the Verbal Behavior Center for Autism, Medley led the center’s move to a larger building near 96th Street and Keystone Avenue Nov. 1. Now the center is adding students as fast as it can hire therapists to work with…

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VIEWPOINT: Improving health: more than a January fad

As I waited in line at the cafeteria just into the new year, I watched the man in front of me. It would be easy to assume the salad and wrap station would provide patrons with a healthful lunch option. Yet I saw a generous portion of fried chicken in a spinach tortilla topped with a pile of cheese and several servings of salad dressing. The man might have started with good intentions, but in a matter of seconds a…

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STATEHOUSE DISPATCH: Daniels pushes tax fix, avoids cluttering agenda

The governor’s State of the State address on Jan. 15 served up no surprises. His priority, a conceptual consensus shared by virtually all lawmakers, continues to be long-lasting property tax reform framed in the context of an overall tax cut for owner-occupied residential property. Beyond that major task, Gov. Mitch Daniels offered nothing in the way of innovative programs for this year. That, of course, is not because he lacks vision or boldness, qualities for which he has been both…

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Mental health docs tap executive market: Carmel’s Indiana Health Group opens high-end suite

Greg Sipes likens the new executiveservices suite he and his partners opened three months ago to a BMW. Its quality is solid, to be sure, but what makes people want to drive it is its look and feel. It’s an apt comparison for the 2,500-square-foot wing of the new offices of Sipes’ behavioral health practice, Indiana Health Group. A set of boardroom-like double doors leads to a waiting room with shiny hardwood floors, dark wood paneling, plush rugs, overstuffed chairs…

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Few stocks avoid effect of housing, banking woes: Wall Street pessimism spreading across industries

Nineteen central Indiana companies have seen their stock prices fall more than one-quarter from the 52-week highs-a plunge that largely reflects pessimism over the strength of the economy. The pullback has hammered some of the top-performing Hoosier companies in recent years, including shopping mall owner Simon Property Group Inc. (off $46 a share, or 38 percent) and school operator ITT Educational Services Inc. (off $52, or 39 percent). Former highfliers often take the biggest tumble when investor sentiment turns bearish….

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INVESTING: Bond insurers pummeled for straying into risky area

As Wall Street continues to record multibillion-dollar losses for its debt-market indiscretions, another industry that for years earned steady returns from the credit markets is sitting on the doorstep of implosion. For decades, bond insurers operated the relatively mundane business of insuring, and thereby guaranteeing, the timely payment of principal and interest on municipal bonds issued by various government and other entities. In recent years, the bond insurers strayed from their core business model and underwrote insurance on the new…

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VOICES FROM THE INDUSTRY: Annual reviews can help prevent financial horror stories

Sharing stories of success are always a lot more fun for me than horror stories. Nevertheless, much like staring at an accident on the side of the road, most people can’t help but find them more interesting. Of course, you have recently completed your annual review with your financial professional. If not, schedule one as soon as you complete reading your IBJ. Here are two stories to illustrate why it is important. A near-miss The first story goes like this:…

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Financial Planning Titles: A list of acronyms after an adviser’s name might look impressive, but those seeking credible advice need to sort through designations

inancial F Planning Titles A list of acronyms after an adviser’s name might look impressive, but those seeking credible advice need to sort through designations Investing your money is overwhelming enough already-especially with all the available options-without having to fret over whether a financial adviser has the credentials to keep your retirement account afloat. Sure, there are a litany of fancy titles financial planners can earn that may help ease your concerns. But what do they really mean? With more…

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Event planners revive venues: Oasis finds new use for eatery, spruces up Murat

When John Stowers was looking to move on from his job managing several nightclubs for an Indianapolisbased partnership in 2002, he and his wife, Patti, wanted to buy a bar he could run. In the process of venue shopping, they stumbled across a space for lease-The Terrace at Market Tower, a restaurant on the second floor of the office building at 10 W. Market St. Like other so-called amenity restaurants, The Terrace was more a perk for building tenants than…

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VIEWPOINT: Why Anderson lured me from Florida

Baby boomers have five more years, 10, 15-then it’s time to enjoy retirement. Except that we keep buying everm o r e – ex p e n s ive houses. What will happen when the paychecks stop? Facing this, I reassessed my situation in Florida. In two years, my taxes there tripled; insurance, doubled. An affordable mortgage didn’t offset increases from the state and my friendly insurance company. To stay viable, I had to leave. Where to go? I figured…

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Malls are ‘soft targets’ for terrorism, experts say: Risks aren’t scaring away holiday shoppers

The deadly shooting spree at a Nebraska mall this month highlighted a challenge confronting Simon Property Group Inc. and other shopping center operators: how to protect their properties from violent acts, or even terrorism, while also leaving them welcoming to shoppers. Most retail real estate owners have ramped up security since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, though experts say shopping centers, like schools, remain “soft targets” for terrorism. “Shopping center owners have been very concerned about security for their patrons for…

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NOTIONS: Read my lips: No taxes whatsoever. Nada. Zip.

I was driving through the Meridian-Kessler neighborhood when I spotted the sign. It was posted in the manicured front lawn of a brick bungalow on a wooded corner lot. It said: “Stop taxing our property.” At other nice houses up and down the same tree-lined street, other signs dotted other manicured lawns. Many of them bore the same message: “For Sale By Owner.” Below that, the signs cited the purported cause of the alleged listings: “excess taxation.” I had the…

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Biz issues move to back seat: Property-tax reform leaves little time for other work

Reforming the state’s property tax system will consume so much of the legislative session that the Indiana General Assembly isn’t expected to give much attention to other issues pertinent to the business community. Compounding matters is the fact that the session, which runs from mid-January to mid-March, is of the short variety, meaning legislators have less time to debate issues than they would during the long, odd-year meetings. “I think [property tax reform] is the most intense and voluminous issue…

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‘BUILD YOUR BUSINESS by investing in it’:

Creative Street Media Group has come a long way-literally and figuratively-from its humble beginnings 23 years ago. The small video production company has become a corporate conglomerate, with 67 employees in five facilities who handle everything from promotional materials to interactive education. Oh yeah, and they also crank out some award-winning TV shows-like the Emmy Award-winning “Vietnam Nurses with Dana Delany.” For all its progress, Creative Street is not done growing. Any day now, the company will expand its reach…

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Niche firms thrive despite anonymity: Some small businesses don’t need storefronts to keep customers coming

Whimsical Whisk isn’t your neighborhood bakery. Pastry chef Clare Welage never wanted it to be. She started the patisserie in 2004 with plans to differentiate herself from the competition by making desserts from scratch using all-natural ingredients, designing items specifically for the customer and-just as important-going without a storefront. “I’ve always felt that if you open up a storefront and you have a specialty product, something somewhere gets compromised,” Welage said. “Ultimately, it’s the quality of the product or it’s…

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Commentary: Of Blue Cross and Blue Chip

WellPoint CEO Angela Braly must be thinking to herself, “Enough with the most powerful and influential stuff already!” In the course of the last several months, Braly has been named the 16th-most-powerful woman in the world-that’s in the world-by Forbes magazine, one of the 19 mostinfluential women in central Indiana by IBJ, and the top woman to watch by the Wall Street Journal. That’s heady stuff, to be sure, but I know for a fact that her two school-age daughters…

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Commentary: Let’s welcome Hilbert back

You gotta love Steve Hilbert. He conceived of an idea and had the strength and focus to achieve an extraordinary result that he sustained over a number of years. … He will undoubtedly return to the grand game of entrepreneurship. If given the opportunity, I would be inclined to invest in his next venture. -July 10, 2000 I penned the above prediction in this column on the anointment of Gary Wendt as CEO and savior of Conseco Inc. After Stephen…

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‘Mini meds’ latest medicine for rising health care costs: Employers begin to embrace limited-benefit plans

Two years ago, Indianapolis insurance broker Greg Wright started hawking an old kind of health insurance in a new way. He calls it a mini med. Others call it a limited-benefit health plan. It allows employers or their employees to pick coverage from a menu of items and receive insurance for only those items. If they don’t pick emergency room visits, for example, they’re not insured for them. It’s the kind of bare-bones benefits some retailers and restaurants, such as…

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Group aims to turn data into better care: Lilly’s Larkin joins Health Information Exchange

The Indiana Health Information Exchange recently hired Dr. Greg Larkin to be its chief medical officer. Larkin, who is the longtime head of Eli Lilly and Co.’s employee clinics and health plans, will focus on the exchange’s Quality Health First program, which aims to use a local database of doctors’ records and insurance claims to help doctors improve their quality of care. The program includes health insurance plans-such as Anthem, UnitedHealth and Medicare-that cover on average 70 percent of local…

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Bariatric product key for software firm’s growth: Former WellPoint execs heading up young company

Medical Animatics LLC hopes its latest product helps double its size while helping patients shrink theirs. The small Indianapolis firm plans to roll out bariatric-education software by yearend. By tapping the popular surgery procedure, Medical Animatics’ officers hope that product grows sales enough to double its nine-person work force in a year. The new product launch is the first major initiative for Medical Animatics since it secured angel investments from two former WellPoint Inc. officers earlier this year. Jane Niederberger…

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