pittsburgh
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Benchmark IT Solutions and the trouble with a green light
A test can pass while the application is down. Benchmark IT Solutions builds software, AI and the checks that help businesses tell the difference between a reassuring dashboard and a working system.
Level Agency asks a better question: which leads matter?
A busy sales funnel can hide an expensive mistake. Level Agency builds its marketing around the people most likely to become customers - then teaches the ad platforms to find more of them.
Paul Uhlman and the long way to the other side of the table
After 36 years at Federated Hermes, Paul Uhlman moved from leading global distribution to overseeing its investment teams. His career began with client calls, and the questions have kept getting bigger.
Jimmy Brock and the summer job that lasted 47 years
A tennis lesson led Jimmy Brock to a coal mine in 1979. His route to the chairmanship and CEO role at Core Natural Resources runs through mine shifts, a merger and the business of preparing someone else to lead.
Scott Pipitone Keeps Making Room
A Pittsburgh designer started with a loan for a computer and printer. Three decades later, Scott Pipitone is still rearranging the space around other people’s ideas.
Koppers makes wood outlast the weather
A railroad tie looks like a block of wood. Koppers sees a chemistry problem, a logistics problem, and a business that can last for decades.
Federated Hermes puts waiting money to work
Most investors talk about where money goes next. Federated Hermes built its business around what money does while it waits - then bought its way into a much longer game.
PPG sells paint. The payoff is time.
A coating is a thin layer with a long job description. PPG’s bet is that better chemistry, paired with better tools, can save customers far more than the price of the paint.
PNC Is Betting $2 Billion on Showing Up
PNC moved millions of customers onto a new online platform. Now it is building more than 300 branches. The apparent contradiction explains how this Pittsburgh bank plans to grow.
Wesco makes the cloud a little more physical.
Behind every server rack is a less glamorous problem: getting power, parts and people into place. Wesco has spent a century learning how to solve it.
Michael J. Brunner and the business of saying hello
Before a new employee got far at Brunner, there was a meeting with Michael. The Pittsburgh agency founder built a career around a deceptively demanding idea: people should know one another, know the numbers, and share in the work.
William Demchak and the value of staying put
He left Wall Street for Pittsburgh. Then he set about taking PNC across America, one carefully chosen deal and one local relationship at a time.
Michael Mathias and the value of coming back
He joined American Eagle in 1998, left, returned, and spent six years as CFO. Now Michael Mathias is helping hand over the numbers - and the knowledge behind them.
John Oyler’s Eight-Hour Business School
Before he led BeOne Medicines, John Oyler sold rugs and refrigerators to students. A truckload of carpets helps explain the way he builds companies.
John Engel and the advantage of the unglamorous
A $4.5 billion deal put John Engel’s operating instincts to the test. The Wesco chief’s next wager runs through the cables, power systems and people behind the digital economy.
Debra Cafaro and the art of knowing when to bet
A Pittsburgh mail carrier’s daughter became a lawyer, took a chance on a troubled company, and stayed to build Ventas. Her story runs through silver dollars, difficult negotiations, and the people who make a second act possible.
Tim Knavish and the value of a long apprenticeship
He joined PPG as an engineer in 1987. After learning the company one assignment at a time, Tim Knavish now faces a different problem: deciding what it should become.
Rich Guerrini and the value of a second conversation
From telephone advice to digital brokerage accounts, Rich Guerrini has spent his PNC career connecting investors with people who can help. His next chapter brings banking and investing closer together.
Keith Schaefer and the business of what comes next
From an Atari awards stage to the electricity grid, Keith Schaefer has worked where technology meets a customer. His next connections run through investment banking and the university he never quite left.
Carnegie Learning bets on the next step
An algebra mistake can tell a teacher more than a correct answer. Carnegie Learning built a business around noticing the difference - and helping schools act on it.
Gecko Robotics goes where the data isn't.
A wall-climbing robot makes a good entrance. Gecko Robotics’ bigger bet is that measuring the physical world can change how we repair it, finance it, and build it again.
Niche Wants Colleges to Make the First Move
The school-review company spent years helping students choose. Now it helps colleges choose them - with acceptance and scholarship offers arriving before an application.
William J. Golden’s bee-and-pollen theory
Before founding Noveome, William J. Golden helped build a venture fund to draw investment toward Pittsburgh. His career connects the money, institutions and people that give a company somewhere to begin.
Ven Raju and the case for the underdog
At 18, Ven Raju wanted to be a lawyer. At Innovation Works, he has found another way to argue for the underdog: help Pittsburgh’s entrepreneurs get the capital, customers, and practical support to build a business.
Mark Peterson and the money that stayed in the neighborhood
In 1990, Mark Peterson founded the community loan fund that became Bridgeway Capital. Over 29 years, his work carried him from financing neighborhood businesses to reopening a Homewood factory - and eventually to helping other leaders take their turn.
Bridgeway Capital bets on the businesses a balance sheet can miss
A childcare center, an old factory, a grant that pays too late. In the industrial towns around Pittsburgh, Bridgeway Capital finances the awkward gaps between a useful idea and a working business.
Innovation Works bets on the part after the invention
Pittsburgh has plenty of people who can build something clever. Innovation Works helps them answer the more expensive question: who will buy it?
PITT OHIO and the business of fewer surprises
A family freight company built its name on next-day delivery. Its more revealing work happens around the truck: protecting pallets, counting carbon, and learning which new ideas can carry their weight.
Argo AI taught cars to drive. Then its backers changed direction.
Ford and Volkswagen backed a machine that could navigate city streets. Argo’s harder assignment was reaching a profitable business before its investors ran out of patience.
Seegrid and the art of being boring
A warehouse robot earns its keep by making the same journey uneventful, thousands of times. Seegrid has built a business around that modest ambition - and survived a rather less uneventful journey of its own.