Jay Sachetti joined Jeff O’Brien, partner at Husch Blackwell and Dyanne Ross-Hanson, president of Exit Planning Strategies talked about the market for mergers and acquisitions, exit planning opportunities for companies that don’t end up for sale and how companies can maximize their eventual sale price during an early October panel at the first Upsize on Tap event at Summit Brewing Co. in St. Paul.
When the state Legislature passed a law requiring employers to provide paid leave and safe time for employees, Justin Bieganek started hearing differing details from friends, colleagues and peers.
Holes in 14 “critical infrastructures” identified by the U.S. government — such as transportation, food systems, water systems and energy pipelines — present opportunities to small-business innovators.
That’s according to Brian Isle and Bonnie Bennett, Ph.D., co-owners of the not-for-profit Adventium Labs in Minneapolis. “They’re considered critical because having an attack on any one of them would cause considerable disruption,” Isle says. He notes heightened interest in the security of such systems. “Up until 9/11 most people said, ‘Yeah, it’s important,’ but didn’t take it seriously.
“There’s a crying need in the process control industry to test and confirm that systems are secured,” Isle says. “Also, the threat from the cyber hackers is becoming more sophisticated. From a security standpoint, there’s a whole marketplace.”
Adventium has released findings from a workshop they organized last fall, which drew academic, industry and government experts from around the country to the Twin Cities to discuss infrastructure protection. Adventium secured a National Science Foundation grant to put together the event.
A main focus of the workshop was power generation and distribution, and it took place after the massive power failure in the Northeast last summer. The timing “was just by accident,” Isle says. “We’ve known for years that the power grid was vulnerable.”
Bennett and Isle started Adventium in August 2002 as a not-for-profit. “We’ve booked over $2 million in federal research funding in 18 months,” Bennett says. “Part of being a non-profit is you get to work with government research labs. And it keeps us focused on the research.”
Bennett had worked for Honeywell and was instrumental in developing the University of St. Thomas graduate program in software development. Isle was director of research at Honeywell labs. They work with small and large companies to help them secure research grants, among other things.
Bonnie Bennett and Brian Isle, Adventium Labs: 612.720.4960; bo************@***********bs.org; www.adventiumlabs.org
