Baltimore Business Journal articles from October 1997

Baltimore Business Journal archives from October 1997

Feasting on part-time: high-tech industry leads temp trends.
October 3, 1997... High-tech industry leads temp trends Jimmy Scott often calls on a temporary help firm when his company is slammed with a growing mountain of work. But Scott, senior distribution service manager at Vanstar Inc.'s Columbia office, isn't...

Sierra picking HQ sites. (Sierra Military Health Services)
October 3, 1997... After months of delays, a Las Vegas-based health care company has won a $1.5 billion federal contract that could mean 250 new jobs for downtown Baltimore. Sierra Military Health Services will administer health benefits for 600,000 military...

Hopkins/Helix union a puzzle. (Johns Hopkins Medicine; Helix Health)
October 3, 1997... A business relationship between Johns Hopkins Medicine and Helix Health makes perfect sense and no sense at all. Talks between the two huge health systems, though, dearly illustrates one point: As Baltimore-area health Care executives scramble...

Stock picking: membership card required. (investment club)
October 3, 1997... After Margaret G. Flippo was divorced in 1988, she had to rely on a broker for investment advice. But in time, Flippo, a travel agent by trade, sensed something was amiss. "I noticed he was making money and I wasn't," said the Annapolis...

All that glitters won't necessarily last. (Reliable Stores Inc.'s jewelry div)
October 3, 1997... With consolidation grinding down mid-sized operators, Columbia-based retailer Reliable Stores Inc. is polishing up its jewelry division in anticipation of a sale. Reliable owns 33 jewelry stores in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West...

On his way to the top spot, Martin got the point. (Provident Bankshares Corp.'s Chmn. Peter M. Martin)
October 3, 1997... Years ago, when Peter M. Martin was senior vice president of Bank of Boston, he wanted to do something about the irritating noise from check-sorting equipment that was plaguing employees. But when he went to the executive in charge of...

The check's in ... cyberspace: small business are beginning to bank electronically.
October 3, 1997... As president and CEO of In Vitro Technologies Inc., Paul Silber is used to testing products. His Catonsville firm helps its pharmaceutical company customers determine how well their newer discoveries work. Now, in effect, Silber's helping...

Trial and error pays off for D.C. investment banker. (Manny Friedman)
October 3, 1997... No stock brokerage house wanted Manny Friedman in 1972 - some 25 firms turned him down. So where is he now? At 51, Friedman sits on top of a burgeoning investment empire based in Rosslyn, Va., overlooking such Washington, D.C., landmarks as the...

Accountants survive by adapting their skills.
October 3, 1997... Competing against accounting software, accountants now are more than bookkeepers The proliferation of inexpensive accounting and bookkeeping computer software begs a question: Are accountants becoming an extinct species? The answer follows...

Bottom line: Orioles now hot property. (Baltimore professional baseball team ownership value)
October 10, 1997... As a business enterprise, the Baltimore Orioles organization has not reported a profit in years and doesn't even generate enough annual revenue to be considered one of the city's top 10 privately held firms. But it's still one of the city's...

Image boost makes fans of officials. (Baltimore professional baseball sport image building ekes out industry)
October 10, 1997... Baseball's American League Championship Series couldn't come at a better time for Carroll Armstrong. The president and chief executive of the Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association was showing off the charms of Charm City this week...

Marketing blunders irk chain's franchisees. (McDonald's parent company and local franchisees' marketing differences) (related article on McDonald's Baltimore local franchisee)
October 10, 1997... Rod and Sharon Mann know how to sell hamburgers and french fries. Last month, these owners of three McDonald's restaurants in Dundalk took home the Ronald McDonald Award - the highest award for marketing given by the mammoth hamburger chain....

City targets the upscale for off-season tourism. (Baltimore City campaigns for sports-related tourism)
October 10, 1997... The prime tourism season has come to a close, but the city's effort to attract visitors keeps churning. In an effort to promote leisure travel in the fall, winter and spring, the Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association is teaming up...

New director rededicates trade program. (Maryland's international Trade Finance Program installs new manager)
October 10, 1997... With renewed focus and a new director, state business officials hope to revamp a successful international trade program that recently lost some of its stature. Elias Shomali, a 17-year veteran with Signet Bank, took over the helm of the...

Thrift execs, workers brace for Crestar deal. (American National shareholders' move against Crestar Financial Corp merger)
October 10, 1997... American National shareholders on Nov. 4 are likely to vote James M. Uveges out of a job. Presumably, they have nothing against the senior vice president and chief financial officer of the Baltimore-based thrift. But by voting to approve the...

Employers wary of HMO report cards. (Health Maintenance Organization)
October 10, 1997... When Rouse Co. officials consider what health plans to offer workers, the company mainly relies on employee satisfaction surveys. What hard data do they look at? "Damn little," said Bill Boden, a vice president and director of human...

Hotelier dealing in casinos. (Patriot American Hospitality purchases WHG Resorts & Casinos and Wyndham Hotel Corp.)
October 10, 1997... The company that will own the massive hotel planned for Inner Harbor East has bought a major operator of casinos in the Caribbean. On Oct. 1, Dallas-based Patriot American Hospitality, which will own the planned Wyndham Hotel at Inner Harbor...

Hopkins-Helix talks give Medlantic officials pause. (Johns Hopkins-Health Helix merger)
October 10, 1997... Could a venture between Baltimore's two hospital heavyweights threaten Washington, D.C.-based Medlantic Healthcare Group's push to profit from the booming Washington-Baltimore market? That's the question senior Medlantic officials are pondering...

Partnerships helping small firms. (Eastern Shore Trading Co. partnership with larger firms to help its bid for national market)
October 10, 1997... Looking to expand beyond a regional market, Dries van Wagenberg, president of the Eastern Shore Trading Co. turned to a larger company in the industry. As importers/distributors of collectibles, Eastern Shore Trading, of Riderwood, always had...

Provident Bankshares Corp. (With Proxy Report Excerpts)
October 10, 1997... Corporate Profile Provident Bankshares Corp., the holding company for Provident Bank of Maryland, has been a Baltimore fixture since 1886. That makes it a rarity on the local banking scene, where out-of-town banks have been buying most of the...

Larger banks find raising fees easier than small banks.(Company Profile)
October 10, 1997... Fees are growing much faster at large banks than at the smaller community banks, according to a recent study. In the 12 months ending March 31, service charges at banks with assets of more than $300 million were 1.043 percent of those banks'...

Group wields influence over future of city's skyline.
October 10, 1997... Imagine, if you can, Oriole Park at Camden Yards without the warehouse. In hindsight, it is the single greatest architectural treasure of the stadium, itself a breakthrough in design. And yet, there were some when the stadium was-built who...

NYLCare plans new headquarters in P.G. County. (New York Life's health insurance division - NYLCare Health Plans of the MidAtlantic Inc.)
October 10, 1997... One of the region's largest managed health care companies is planning to build a new headquarters in Prince George's County. NYLCare Health Plans of the Mid-Atlantic Inc. plans to stay in Prince George's County in a new six-story headquarters...

Building engineers watch properties from afar.(Consolidated Engineering monitors 120 buildings from its Northern Va. center.)
October 10, 1997... Consolidated Engineering monitors 120 buildings from its Northern Va. center Call it "Mission Control." Located just off a busy corridor in a Crystal City, Va., office building, a team of engineers keeps a watchful eye on 50 million square...

Baltimore City Public Schools. (1997 Excellence in Workplace Technology Awards finalist)(The Innovators.)
October 10, 1997... Two years ago. the Baltimore City Public Schools decided to pull the plug on a computerized mainframe it developed internally to track the services provided to the school system's 18,000 special education students. The school system was, and...

Gould Architects. (1997 Excellence in Workplace Technology Awards finalist)(The Innovators.)
October 10, 1997... More than two years ago, Gould Architects of Baltimore was commissioned by the Columbus Center, a working educational and marine biology research facility in downtown Baltimore, to create a pedestrian walkway linking two piers on Baltimore's...

Waterford Caseworks. (1997 Excellence in Workplace Technology Awards finalist)(The Innovators.)
October 10, 1997... Soon after Roland Jeffries started Waterford Caseworks, a manufacturer of custom cabinets and workstations for commercial clients, in 1994, he realized he had a problem. He couldn't find qualified cabinet makers. Sure, some job applicants had...

American Credit Indemnity Corp. (1997 Excellence in Workplace Technology Awards finalist)(The Innovators.)
October 10, 1997... Last year, American Credit Indemnity Co., or ACI, the nation's leading business credit insurer, was going through a period of planned high growth. But ACI officials found that in order to remain competitive and expand the firm's market...

Drs. Tannenbaum & Tyler LLC. (1997 Excellence in Workplace Technology Awards finalist)(The Innovators.)
October 10, 1997... During the summer of 1993, Dr. Lee E. Tannenbaum began to feel frustrated with the paperwork demands of his job. As a family practitioner working for a health maintenance organization, Tannenbaum saw many patients every day. But he felt like he...

USF&G Insurance Information Services. (1997 Excellence in Workplace Technology Awards finalist)(The Innovators.)
October 10, 1997... Two and a half years ago, USF&G Corp.'s Family and Business Insurance Group along with its IS Business Foundation Team, realized the company - a leading property and casualty insurer - needed to make some significant changes in order to grow....

T. Rowe Price Associates Inc. (1997 Excellence Workplace Technology Awards finalist)
October 10, 1997... Investors today are smarter and want information faster. T Rowe Price Associates Inc. officials knew the key to providing improved customer service was directly linked to the Baltimore-based company's level of technology. For many years,...

Rapid Response Inc. (1997 Excellence in Workplace Technology Awards finalist)(The Innovators.)
October 10, 1997... Rapid Response Inc., which redesigns mailing systems for claims and bills in the insurance, association and health care industries, found that its clients were using slow, labor-intensive systems, especially in the insurance industry,...

AAI Corp. (1997 Excellence in Workplace Technology Awards finalist)(The Innovators.)
October 10, 1997... In 1993, AAI Corp,-Defense Systems Division in Hunt Valley was having problems getting its software products to the point at which they were ready to be shipped out. There were gaps in the way the whole development process was organized and a...

KnowledgeLink LLC. (1997 Excellence in Workplace Technology Awards finalist)(The Innovators.)
October 10, 1997... KnowledgeLink LLC was founded by Edwin R. Addison in March 1997 to develop, produce and market intelligent, knowledge-based electronic publishing software to meet the growing need for corporate knowledge management. The College Park firm's staff...

Will the games begin? Region starts pricey bid for Olympics. (Baltimore, Maryland)
October 17, 1997... Region starts pricey bid for Olympics Mention of the Olympics and Baltimore in the same breath is bound to draw some funny looks. But John Moag, chairman of the Maryland Stadium Authority, is not kidding around. "It is serious," said...

State eyes break for tuition: high-tech education would be cheaper. (Maryland)
October 17, 1997... Maryland's lawmakers may reduce state university tuition for engineering and high-technology majors next year to address a growing worker shortage in those fields. State Sen. Patrick J. Hogan, a Montgomery County Republican, said he's now...

Baltimore draws popular micro-brew fest. (Great American Beer Festival)
October 17, 1997... The Great American Beer Festival, one of the country's most popular micro-brew attractions, is heading to Baltimore. The Boulder, Colo.-based Association of Brewers has chosen Charm City for its first major beer lovers' convention held outside...

Legg Mason looks to grow in metro area. (Legg Mason Inc.; Baltimore-Washington area)
October 17, 1997... Legg Mason Inc. is continuing to expand in the Baltimore-Washington area. The firm is seeking more space in Westminster, where it is considering doubling the size of its six-broker staff, said Robert G. Sabelhaus, executive vice president and...

Car renters want to be your neighbor. (U-Save Auto Rental of America Inc.)
October 17, 1997... A U-Save Auto Rental franchisee in Jackson, Miss., saw great potential in his Hanover-based franchisor - so he bought the company. Nearly a year later, chief executive officer Tom McDonnell is speeding up plans to make U-Save the number two...

Six Maryland companies seek to clean Asian waters.
October 17, 1997... Six Maryland companies - all of whom help prevent or clean up water pollution - will participate in Asia's largest environmental trade show next month. The companies were assembled for the trade show, which will take place in Singapore from...

Former executive still in the money. (Denwood N. Kelly; financial history)
October 17, 1997... The money Denwood N. Kelly is most interested in is not the kind he can take to the bank. Kelly has spent years organizing and researching the bills that were issued in the early 1800s by Maryland businesses, including but not exclusively...

Exclusive Interim Properties merges with national group.
October 17, 1997... An independent Baltimore interim housing company has merged with four others across the country and gone public. Exclusive Interim Properties is now known as Bridge Street Accommodations and is traded on the Nasdaq National Market under the...

Former staffer sued by The Daily Record. (newspaper)
October 17, 1997... The Daily Record, a local daily legal and business newspaper, has filed suit against a former employee, alleging copyright infringement and unfair trade practices. Bradley A. Kukuk, former writer for The Daily Record's Maryland Family Law...

Washington's private sector adds workers.
October 17, 1997... The private-sector job market is making a surprise comeback in Washington, D.C., which is adding non-government jobs nearly as quickly as the Maryland suburbs. Despite the District's heavy losses of government jobs and residents in the past...

Credit cards a popular source of financing.(Growth Strategies)
October 17, 1997... Dolly Brannigan had been looking for a business opportunity when she met Joanne Vazquez, owner of Anne Arundel Balloons. And Vazquez, a working mother of two with a second job, was going out of business. After negotiations, Brannigan bought the...

Peace, love and peanuts. (book on Southwest Airlines' successful corporate culture)(Growth Strategies)
October 17, 1997... At a glance, it looks like a back to the '70s, flower child love fest. The book, "Nuts! Southwest Airlines' Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success," includes talk about love and hugs. And it is illustrated with hearts, balloons,...

Mercantile Bankshares Corp. (proxy report excerpts)(Company Profile)
October 17, 1997... Corporate Profile Mercantile Bankshares Corp., a multibank holding company with affiliates around the Mid-Atlantic region, still has a stronghold as a mid-sized regional banking institution. For the 21st consecutive year, Mercantile Bankshares...

Number of judges stays the same. (bankruptcy judges)
October 17, 1997... WASHINGTON - Despite repeated pleas to Congress, the nation's bankruptcy judges once again failed in their effort to add new judgeships in selected districts across the country. Congress was considering adding at least 11 new permanent and...

Managing more than care: Medicaid patients bring new business to insurers, but new problems as well.
October 17, 1997... Maryland's massive shift of Medicaid recipients into managed care plans is forcing insurers - and their employees - to confront some unexpected problems. Danni Davis, a social worker at United Health Care of the Mid Atlantic Inc., comes across...

Flu shots save more than trip to the pharmacy.(Health Care: Stress at Work)
October 17, 1997... No one knows when the next virulent epidemic of influenza will occur. Four epidemics during the last 25 years claimed more than 40,000 lives each, and the average annual death toll is 20,000. Each epidemic costs businesses many thousands of...

New wellness programs can produce big savings.(Health Care: Managing Care)
October 17, 1997... In the 1980s, American businesses eagerly adopted wellness programs in an effort to integrate healthy living habits into the day-to-day work place routine and to reduce health care costs. The programs often focused on encouraging employees to...

Out of the Hopkins' nest: LearnWare ready to leave academic world. (Johns Hopkins University; LearnWare LLC)
October 24, 1997... LearnWare ready to leave academic world Baltimore will get a new technology company by the end of the year, as a division of Johns Hopkins University spins off into a for-profit corporation. LearnWare LLC, a private limited liability...

Huge outlet mall eyed for Anne Arundel. (Potomac Mills outlet mall in Anne Arundel County, Maryland)
October 24, 1997... The developer of Potomac Mills, the gigantic outlet mall in Prince William, Va., is considering building a similar project near the Baltimore/Washington International Airport. "We think that the population between Richmond [Va.], Washington...

NAACP taps city for 2000. (NAACP annual conference in Baltimore, Maryland)
October 24, 1997... Baltimore chosen for high-profile convention Baltimore will be the host city of the NAACP's annual convention in 2000, giving the convention business here a prestigious boost. The six-day convention, slated for July of that year, is expected...

State brought in on Baltimore Life dispute. (Baltimore Life Insurance Co.)
October 24, 1997... An Arab-American civil rights organization has asked state regulators to revoke the license of Baltimore Life Insurance Co. Houeida Saad, director of legal services for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, sent a letter last week to...

After years of snooping, he's voted best in the world. (Commercial Index Bureau Inc. President Rockne F. Cooke)
October 24, 1997... Rockne F. Cooke doesn't crawl through cornfields or spend hours on stakeouts like he used to. But this 50-year-old private investigator still gets satisfaction when a fraud is uncovered, and even more satisfaction when his peers vote him...

State's trade office finds promise in Rotterdam. (Maryland's international trade office)
October 24, 1997... Although the European Union has settled in Brussels, Belgium, Maryland's international trade office has moved out. The move of the state office from Brussels to Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, is part of an effort by Maryland officials to...

Store's clothes will fit kids all over the earth. (Earth Babies Co.)
October 24, 1997... When Shelley Sarmiento began shopping for clothes for her newborn daughter, she wasn't satisfied. "I would shop for clothing, and thought, I can't possibly put my child in these clothes," she said. So she found a solution: She created her...

Who said artists have to starve? (computer graphics artists)
October 24, 1997... For the technologically talented, a lucrative future awaits Leland Mejia is a professional artist who graduated from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County two years ago. So how on earth can he be pulling down an attractive salary in...

Tech firms find financing the old-fashioned way.
October 24, 1997... Mike Teitelbaum had been banking with NationsBank, formerly Maryland National Bank, for years. About a year ago, he needed a loan to fund a start-up Internet company called e.magination network LLC. A representative from a smaller bank, with an...

Former AT&T head takes Teligent public. (AT&T Corp.; Teligent LLC)
October 24, 1997... Firm to do battle in hot wireless communications market Alex Mandl, the former president and chief operating officer of AT&T Corp., is taking his new fixed wireless venture public. Mandl, who was lured away from AT&T in August 1996 by the...

New competitors want share of Bell's business. (Bell Atlantic Corp.)
October 24, 1997... It's a no-brainer for most companies and households. To buy local telephone service, call Bell Atlantic. For the first time in decades, that's starting to change. The dawn of competition - and the end of Bell Atlantic Corp.'s powerful monopoly...

Banks gearing up to plug into 'Net for online gains. (NationsBank Corp.; internet online banking)
October 24, 1997... NationsBank will add an Internet connection to its online banking service within the next six months as the national push to bank by computer intensifies. The addition of Internet banking is expected to strengthen NationsBank's already growing...

Ciena Corp. (Proxy Report Excerpts) (Company Profile)
October 24, 1997... Corporate Profile Fast-growing is almost an understatement when describing Ciena Corp. Like many of Maryland's information-technology firms, Linthicum-based Ciena Corp. is on a roll, with third-quarter earnings this year tripling over last...

Montgomery to spend $200,000 on its image. (Montgomery County, Maryland)
October 24, 1997... After about five years of operating without a marketing budget, Montgomery County is renewing its commitment to public image. On Oct. 2, the county signed a $200,000 contract with Boscobel Marketing Communications of Silver Spring to revive its...