Becoming the hunter
Elizabeth Mackay’s experience at the state Division of Consumer Affairs prepared her to serve as the lieutenant governor’s senior policy adviser for reviewing red tape and advocating for small businesses. But it was hardly the only plus on her resume, which also includes a four-year stint as a prosecutor, both at the state and federal […]
Expanding focus by assessing IT’s value
When CEO Robert J. Svec and his business partner, Alan Maltz, bought the assets of ComSci LLC in August 2005, the company concentrated on reducing businesses’ telecommunications costs. But the business partners reoriented ComSci by expanding its focus and channeling Svec’s inner accountant to sniff out inefficiencies across IT departments, helping chief information officers understand [...]
Portrait of the artist as an entrepreneur
Linda Townshend has been working as a professional illustrator and painter for 35 years, but she continues to seek new ways to adjust to the market and find clients. This became particularly true for Delran-based Townshend and other artists who have sole-proprietor businesses during the recent recession.“There are ups and downs in the market — […]
Teaching to tech-savvy generation
If it wasn’t for his 11-year-old daughter, Bill Zengel would have passed up an opportunity that led to him founding a company. What started as one course taught by Zengel and school administrator Richard Ginn, grew into Black Rocket Productions, which teaches kids how to do everything from create fashion programs to design robotics. “Children […]
JJ gets two approvals
New Brunswick-based Johnson & Johnson ended the week with a double dose of good news. Two of the pharmaceutical giant’s subsidiaries received products approvals from the Food and Drug Administration. The first is a drug to treat HIV. The other is a vascular closure device for use in patients undergoing heart surgery. The HIV drug, […]
Bill would require notice for renewals
A bill passed by the Assembly on May 9 would require businesses to notify customers when a service contract is to be automatically renewed. The measure, A-3770, was sponsored by Assemblymen Daniel R. Benson (D-Hamilton Square) and Paul D. Moriarty (D-Turnersville) and approved by the Assembly by a 69-5 vote. “By requiring these terms to […]
Worth saving
When a CEO is installed at a company that’s looking to battle back from bankruptcy, the temptation sometimes is to throw out the company’s strategic direction and head in a wildly different direction. But after six months in the corner office, Fred Smagorinsky is sticking to his strategy of avoiding drastic changes in the way […]
Mixed report on N.J.’s transportation dollars
New Jersey spent an estimated $5.1 billion on transportation in fiscal year 2010, but met mixed results when it came to identifying goals and taking other steps to choose cost-effective transportation funding and policy options, according to the Pew Center on the States, an organization that considers solutions to issues facing states. “New Jersey fares […]
Tax reformer aims to flatten aid per pupil
State Sen. Michael J. Doherty (R-Washington) has proposed a sweeping property tax reform plan he said will benefit New Jersey businesses. Doherty, a potential U.S. Senate contender, said the plan would relieve the strain on businesses that own commercial property in the majority of towns that pay more into the system than they receive. Doherty […]
Developer buys back Parsippany property
SJP Properties announced last week it had bought back the first phase of Morris Corporate Center IV, a five-story, 350,000-square-foot Class A office property that the real estate developer originally built in 1999 as part of its 182-acre master-planned Morris Corporate Center campus in Parsippany. NJBIZ first reported in Grapevine on Jan. 31 that SJP […]
Cordis fined 19.5M for patent violations
Bridgewater-based Cordis Corp. was ordered to pay $19.5 million last week after a jury found the company willfully infringed on a heart stent patent owned by Massachusetts-based Boston Scientific Corp. Boston Scientific filed suit in 2009, claiming Cordis’ 2.25-millimeter Cypher stent infringed on the patent for Boston Scientific’s Jang stent. Last week, a jury in […]
Study Airport gives lift to South Jersey region
Atlantic City International Airport added more than 4,000 jobs, $138 million of wages and salaries, and $22.4 million in tax revenue, to South Jersey’s economy from 2007 through 2010, according to a study done by the Center for Regional and Business Research at Atlantic Cape Community College. Passenger traffic at the airport was up 31 […]