The IBJ Podcast

Former school board member now drives bus for district

Tony Dzwonar had just wrapped up three consecutive terms on the Washington Township school board—serving from 2008 to late 2020—and was looking for a way to spend his extra free time. He remembered that the district –like most school corporations—needed bus drivers.

He received the required training and a commercial driver’s license before becoming one of about 100 district bus drivers in fall 2021. He worked daily, running two or three routes in the southeastern portion of the district that included elementary children, middle schoolers and high school students.

In the latest edition of the IBJ Podcast, Dzwonar tells host Mason King about what he learned waking up at 5 a.m. every school day and getting behind the wheel of a 40-foot bus. He explains how he dealt with his most disruptive students as a newbie driver. He also shares his new street-level perspective of the district and how it gave him insight into the impact of at least one of the school board’s student-focused initiatives.

The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

 

The audacious challenge of choosing leaders for the inaugural Indiana 250

IBJ Media last week released its inaugural Indiana 250, a list of the most influential and impactful business and community leaders in Indiana.

The list — researched and developed by IBJ, Indiana Lawyer and Inside INdiana Business — includes CEOs, philanthropists, entrepreneurs, attorneys, economic development officials and more from across the state.

Host Mason King talks with IBJ Media CEO Nate Feltman and IBJ Editor Lesley Weidenbener, who oversaw production of the Indiana 250, about the goal of the program and the challenge of choosing the honorees.

The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

 

The state has $6.1B in reserves. What will lawmakers do with it?

Lawmakers are preparing to return to the Statehouse next week for a special session that will focus on two key issues: abortion and how to spend some of the state’s $6.1 billion the state has in reserves.

That's right—$6.1 billion. That huge balance in the state's reserve accounts is the result of higher than expected tax receipts as well as pandemic relief money the federal government sent to the state. Gov. Eric Holcomb wants lawmakers to send some of that money back to Hoosiers in the form of $225 tax refund checks.

In this week's podcast, IBJ Editor Lesley Weidenbener—in for vacationing host Mason King—talks about the upcoming session with Peter Blanchard, IBJ’s new Statehouse reporter, and managing editor Greg Weaver, who has spent much of his career writing about and editor reporters who cover politics.

The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

 

Pete The Planner: ‘The best thing you can do right now is stop spending money’

Americans are back in the throes of financial anxiety. Folks with most of their savings in the stock market have been in the profoundly uncomfortable position of watching their portfolios lose 20% to 25% of their value since the beginning of the year. Gas is still near its all-time high and is continuing to play a major factor in skyrocketing inflation. And most experts agree that if we’re not already in a recession, there’s still a very good chance we’ll get stuck in one soon.

IBJ Podcast host Mason King calls on frequent guest Peter Dunn—aka Pete The Planner—to give listeners a pep talk, or at least some straight talk about what’s happening and what to expect. He hits the major topics from inflation to recession, as well as the strategies for riding out the latest fiscal downturn such as gas-tax holidays and Fed rate increases.

To be frank, Pete’s major takeaway is a return to frugality. And be ready for more anxiety this fall, when we really start to feel the restrictions of recession.

The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

 

What lies beneath downtown’s Diamond Chain site?

IBJ reporter Mickey Shuey broke the story last month that Indy Eleven majority owner Ersal Ozdemir has purchased the Diamond Chain industrial site downtown to be home to Eleven Park, a mixed-use development that is to include a 20,000-seat soccer stadium.

Shuey joins the IBJ Podcast this week to discuss the Diamond Chain site, which is located at the corner of South and West streets downtown, and what sorts of surprises it might hold for the development. 

Of course, there's the usual concerns about environmental impacts that come with any industrial site. But this particular spot was also the city's first burial ground. Shuey and podcast host Mason King dive into the details.

The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

 

 

Ryan Vaughn talks sports, the tech sector and whether he might ever run for mayor

Ryan Vaughn has spent the past eight years leading the Indiana Sports Corp., a job that requires constant work attracting big sports events to the city and then pulling them off once they arrive. The goal is to always have a pipeline of events coming to help bolster the region's tourism industry and economy overall.

IBJ reporter Mickey Shuey (in for vacationing host Mason King) talks with Vaughn about what he's learned during his time in the post and why he's leaving to take a job in the tech sector.

Plus, Shuey presses Vaughn about the challenge the next Indiana Sports Corp. president will face—and whether Vaughn might someday run for mayor.

The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

Examining the $175M plan for downtown’s City Market block

The city has endorsed a $175 million proposal from two Indianapolis-based developers to significantly recast the entire block that contains the Indianapolis City Market.

The proposal from Gershman Partners and Citimark included the following: A $90 million redevelopment of the Gold Building (which is the 9^thlargest office complex downtown) into an apartment building with 350 units and an entirely new façade with a darker, more neutral color.

Next up: Construction of a $40 million, 11-story apartment building with 60 units, plus office and retail space, on the site where the market’s east wing currently sits. Next, $30 million in ongoing improvements to the 11-story office building at 251 E. Ohio, and $12 million in improvements to the parking garage that’s between 251 E. Ohio  and the Gold Building, which are all on the northern half of the block.

For this week’s edition of the podcast, host Mason king talks with Scarlett Andrews, director of the Indianapolis Department of Metropolitan Development, and Eric Gershman, principal at Gershman Partners, about the project and the timeline.

Is a funding slowdown hitting the local tech sector?

The amount of venture capital invested into Indiana-based tech companies was down overall in the first quarter of the year—despite several recent announcements. That tracks with national trends, and has local venture firms urging their portfolio companies to think about ways to make their cash last longer.

IBJ tech reporter Susan Orr talked with local tech firms and venture funders about the trends and tells host Mason King about their concerns and expectations.

But Orr said there’s plenty of optimism about the area’s tech sector. And she offers a reminder that sometime slowdowns help weed out weaker companies while making others stronger.

You can read Orr’s story at IBJ.com.

Inside the risk-taking mindset of Maven Space’s co-founder, CEO

The name Leslie Bailey might ring a bell. She was a reporter for The Indianapolis Star from 2012 to 2016 and penned a regular column titled "The Adventuress." She’d jump into some new sport or activity or an unusual situation and write about it. As she discusses in the latest edition of the IBJ Podcast, taking risks is in her DNA.

In 2019, Bailey and business partner Amanda Kingsbury co-founded Indy Maven, a lifestyle website and membership organization focused on providing a wide variety of content and networking resources for women. As Bailey learned more from the women who were consuming the content and pursuing networking opportunities, she realized that the next obvious move was to create a physical space that could serve that community.

So she and another partner co-founded Maven Space, which at heart is a co-working space—again, primarily intended for women—but also offers an abundance of amenities including a full gym, a podcast studio and a room for new mothers. This was a much bigger risk, which entailed digging deeply into her personal savings and getting a zero-interest credit card for charging necessary expenses.

Maven Space opened in mid-May. Bailey was fortunate to find a space to sublease in downtown's historic Gibson building that already was outfitted with many of the features she wanted to offer. But the sublease is up in about two years, meaning a new set of important decisions is waiting just over the horizon.

In this week’s edition of the podcast, Bailey discusses her approach to entrepreneurism, which some would describe as building the plane while you’re trying to fly it. She readily admits that she wouldn’t necessarily advise other new entrepreneurs to take the same path. But, as she says, she believes in the idea and wasn’t interested in the time and energy needed to try to find investors when women-led businesses historically get so little attention from funders.

The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

 

What Indiana’s auto industry must do to adapt to EVs

Carmaker Stellantis NV made big news in Indiana last week when it announced it will build a $2.5 billion electric-vehicle battery plant in Kokomo with partner Samsung SDI. The plant—which is expected to employ 1,400 people—is one step in a fledgling transition in the auto industry from vehicles with internal combustion engines to those with electric motors. 

But what does that transition mean for a state like Indiana, which has five vehicle assembly plants and more than 500 auto industry suppliers. In all, more than 110,000 people are employed by the auto industry.

Podcast host Mason King talks with Ananth Iyer, a professor of management at Purdue’s Krannert School of Management, who is part of a group studying the potential disruption in the auto industry and how Indiana manufacturers can adapt. 

Iyer sees tremendous potential for those plants and their workers, even if that means a bit of retooling and retraining to realize it.

For more about the disruption EVs are causing in the auto industry, read Susan Orr's story in IBJ's Innovation Issue here.