June / July 2011

Ben Schmidt’s plastics company was barely six months old when he stepped into the former Whirlpool plant. The space was vast and empty. The 1.7 million square feet once housed 1,100 employees, from engineers to assemblers, until the refrigeration company

When the Downtown River House Hotel’s power was shut off in 2009 and more than 50 Evansvillians were forced to abandon their rooms, Chris Jackson looked at the structure’s investment potential. The commercial real estate broker noted that the 1965

On one end of a stage in Roberts Stadium sat a pile of diplomas. One by one, University of Southern Indiana seniors walked across the stage as thousands of family and friends watched every step on May 8. At the

Job: Chairman of the board of directors and CEO of Connecticut-based SS&C Technologies. Hometown: Evansville. His Story: In March 2011, Stone announced he was bringing 500 new jobs to Downtown Evansville by 2014. Those employees will add to SS&C’s 1,400

One of the oldest clichés that exists is that different occurrences including death occur in threes. Unfortunately, since my last letter, that has been especially true in Evansville. These three people made significant contributions to our community that will not

In October 2009, Evansvillians were reeling from this announcement: Whirlpool executives were taking 1,100 jobs from their North Side refrigeration factory elsewhere. Soon after, our readers learned of Project Green, the culmination of a three-year effort aiming to bring jobs

When I read a book now, I use the iPad, Apple’s brilliant tablet computer, because any good hardware needs good software, and Apple offers both. The computer company boasts a beautiful integration of music, movies, apps, and books to be

When I call Chris Jourdan’s cell phone, the Black Eyed Peas answer the phone. The pop rap group who starred in this year’s Super Bowl halftime show sing, “I got a feeling that tonight’s gonna be a good night.” It’s

That recession was hard on all of us. Valuable lessons were learned. Andrew Rice began his career as a financial representative at Northwestern Mutual in 2007, just before the economy nosedived. Here’s what he learned battling on the recession’s front

Whose Site Is It? Perhaps you’ve exercised there or been one of the 2,348 who ran or walked (or painfully crawled) in their half marathon last year, but we’ve all done the dance. Under the revamped look and direction of

In January 2007, Steve McClellan accepted a job as the vice president of Professional Transportation Inc., an Evansville-based transportation company. That was one year before gas prices skyrocketed to nearly $4 a gallon. For McClellan, this gas spike was fairly

Flying cars? Not yet. Colonies on Mars? Still no. But that doesn’t mean we can’t think big. In this new section of Evansville Business, we’ll challenge the innovators, trendsetters, and leaders of the community to spark public conversation. The questions

Rebuilt to Last In our feature, “He Rebuilt This City,” we share how Ben Kunkel, an architect, transforms historic buildings in Evansville into spaces used by profitable businesses. The task of renovating a decades-vacant building isn’t easy, and Kunkel has