Pittsburghers Reinvented
Karen Bryant
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
Throughout its history, Pittsburgh has reinvented itself. The region has enjoyed great wealth, survived dire downturns and created amazing new comebacks and opportunities. How? Strong, determined and creative people. As Pittsburgh continues to transform, the people behind the city make the difference. Pop City takes a look at four Pittsburghers who have reinvented themselves and in the process, are helping to reinvent our region.
Jim Berardone, President, Pittsburgh Product Strategy Network
Swissvale resident Jim Berardone’s reinvention is helping position Pittsburgh as a global player. Once a successful product development professional for tech companies like Peroit Systems and Fujitsu, he lost his job after a triple-whammy of the dot-com collapse, 9/11 and the tech downturn. Suddenly, Berardone had time to contemplate one of Pittsburgh’s biggest challenges.
“We’re great in engineering, manufacturing, science and research. But we’re weak at sales, product management and commercializing product,” says Berardone. “Unlike Silicon Valley and Seattle, Pittsburgh didn’t have a strong technical and product development network. That slowed down the process of getting startup products and services off the drawing board and into the marketplace.”
As he researched, he found peers hungry for support and contact. In no time he grew a list of 200 interested parties and then he brought them all together for a day of workshops. It was a success and that was the beginning of a new business venture for Berardone.
In March 2003, he launched Pittsburgh Product Strategy Network (PSN) and quickly signed up 1,500 members, including companies like MEDRAD, Respironics and PPG Industries. Word spread fast to tech companies across North America and Europe. Today, PSN has 3,500 registered professionals, half of which are from outside of Pittsburgh, like Silicon Valley, Vancouver, Seattle and Paris. What satisfies Berardone the most, however, is what this could mean for Pittsburgh. “We’ve trained over 300 managers in a new way to plan the future of their products. I think you’ll see PSN helping Pittsburgh companies compete globally and develop into billion dollar businesses,” he adds.
Patty Kreamer, President, Kreamer Connect
Patty Kreamer’s reinvention is helping Pittsburgh families and businesses operate more efficiently. Before she found her true calling, the professional organizer tried her hand at many things only to discover that working for others meant she usually had to slow down her lightning pace.
It took Kreamer years before she figured out how to turn her natural drive and abilities into a satisfying career. Granted, there were clues along the way: She alphabetized her Halloween candy when she was a little girl and when she grew up, she reorganized the office of every business she worked in, whether her employers wanted it or not.
In 2001, she launched Kreamer Connect, bringing order to the disorganized of Pittsburgh (you know who you are). There’s nothing holding her back now as is evident in the title of her second book, The Power of Simplicity. “I probably work 70 to 90 hours a week, but I enjoy helping people create a more simple and effective life,” she says.
Kreamer knows how to make an impact. She appears frequently in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette and Pittsburgh Business Times and on television shows like Age Wise, LifeQuest, OnQ Magazine and KDKA’s Pittsburgh Today Live. National audiences have seen her on Chicago-Tribune Cable and Fox News in Dallas, in newspapers in North Carolina, Milwaukee and Honolulu and on the speaking circuit in Georgia and Florida.
Whether she is working with private individuals or go-getter agencies like Blattner Brunner, Kreamer delivers a consistent message – get rid of the clutter, simplify your life and you just may find your true self under there.
By all indications, she is striking a chord. Since 1999 she has served over 400 clients and it keeps growing. “Over the past 4 years,” says Kreamer, “business has increased on average of 42% each year.” Kreamer now has six independent contractors handling Kreamer Connect’s residential division.
Pittsburgh is paying attention. In 2005 Patty Kreamer was tapped for Best 50 Women in Business in Pennsylvania and Pittsburgh’s Fast Trackers. She is Pittsburgh chapter president for both the National Speakers Association and the National Association of Professional Organizers. Born to organize, yes, and apparently to lead as well.
Ashley Woodson, Founder and President of Brotha Ash Productions
Ashley Woodson’s reinvention serves as a reminder of the unmet potential in all of us. As he explains it, he was sidetracked by the streets for awhile, like too many African American youth. But Woodson would rather focus on how he turned his life around ten years ago and how that is paying off for Pittsburgh.
He turned to Bidwell Training Center to change his life. And it worked. Along with his certificate in Information Sciences came a personal transformation. “I was rough around the edges when I started. I give Bidwell a lot of credit.” Today he works as a research assistant at the University of Pittsburgh and is pursuing a Bachelors degree in communications.
His day job pays the bills, but his passion and gift to Pittsburgh is Brotha Ash Productions (BAP)a web site and multimedia enterprise he created in 2001. BAP provides a voice for Pittsburgh’s African American community and a vehicle for Woodson to spotlight everything that is good about his culture. Log on and you will discover a rich mosaic of Black businesses, events and individuals including aspiring musicians and artists. Woodson covers everything of importance to his community on BAP. The Church of the Week, community happenings, job listings, highlights of books and poetry. And every week he honors an African American hero like Martin Luther King, Jr. or Jackie Robinson. “It’s not about money,” says Woodson. “It’s about reaching out and giving back.”
Ellen A. Roth, Ph.D., President, Getting to the Point, Inc.
Ellen Roth is instrumental in bringing the best talent to the area. When she moved to Pittsburgh for her husband’s job in 1974, she was 24 with high hopes of securing a museum curator position. But at that time, Pittsburgh had no openings, especially for women.
Disappointed but resourceful, Roth went back to school, earned a Ph.D., became an art therapist and worked with emotionally disturbed children at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic. When her second daughter was born, she reinvented herself again through volunteerism and fundraising.
Roth’s initial disappointment upon relocating to Pittsburgh was the impetus for yet another reinvention. In 1991, she and Jacqui Lazo co-founded Getting to the Point, Inc. a relocation consulting firm dedicated to helping families choose Pittsburgh to relocate and then assist them for a smooth and confident transition. Today her firm works with more than 100 corporations in the Greater Pittsburgh area. Because of her own experience, Roth says she is especially committed to the trailing spouse and provides whatever is needed, including support for career assistance and networking.
Her family’s move to Pittsburgh has been a good one. Husband, Loren Roth, M.D., is now Chief Medical Officer of UPMC. And, after 16 years of helping talented individuals from around the world get to know and ultimately choose Pittsburgh, Ellen Roth has earned the unofficial title of "curator for the Pittsburgh region." In 2003 she was named one of the Best 50 Women in Business in Pennsylvania. “I feel very fortunate that the combination of my curatorial and therapeutic skills have enabled me to be a positive intervention in the lives of new families,” she says.
K.J. Bryant writes about her year on the road collecting stories of reinvention in her forthcoming book, Journeys: 50,000 Miles of Wise Women. Visit
www.kjbryant.com. This is her first article for
Pop City.
Photos:
Four Pittsburghers
Jim Berardone
Patty Kreamer
Ashley Woodson
Ellen Roth
All photographs copyright © Jonathan Greene