Ron Black - facility engineer for the Defense Finance and Accounting Service-Columbus. DFAS-Columbus is composed of 2,500 employees and occupies a new three-unit $80 million structure located within the Defense Supply Center, Columbus compound at 3990 E. Broad St., Whitehall.

Black will soon assume a new position with DFAS on the federal agency's Engineering Focus Group that is responsible for all DFAS facilities worldwide. DFAS provides finance and accounting services to the Department of Defense and has five major centers and 20 smaller operating sites in the U.S. and overseas.

A resident of Gahanna, Black served as chapter vice president last year, and as a member of the Education Committee. He also has served as an associate professor at Columbus State Community College. Black and his wife, Sue, are the parents of three children.

Fredric Timm - an independent contractor involved in facility project management who resides in the Westerville area. Timm took early retirement from Battelle Memorial Institute in 1994 where he was manager of facility engineering and construction. In this position he supervised several million dollars of construction and managed an annual capital budget of $7 million.

Since then, Timm has helped commercial and industrial organizations such as Bank One, Progressive Medical, and Worthington Industries plan, build and occupy new facilities. He also has been involved in projects with COSI, Westerville City Schools, Chemical Abstracts Services, Ohio Dominican College and Battelle.

Timm served as chapter president previously, and as an adjunct faculty member at Columbus State Community College. He is an area governor for Toastmasters International.

Stephanie Segall - regional sales manager for the central Ohio area for Singer Wallcovering headquartered in Cincinnati. Segall has been in this position since joining the company five years ago. She is one of 16 sales persons in eight states, and was recently honored for the second consecutive years as Singer's Sales Person of the Year.

Prior to joining Singer, she was employed as vice president of sales with Intaglio, a point-of-purchase manufacturer and decorative interior finisher. Segall is a graduate of UCLA where she received a bachelor's degree in interior design. She also is a member of the American Institute of Architects and the International Interior Design Association.

A resident of Powell, Segall joined IFMA five years ago and has served as co-chair of the Programs Committee. She currently serves as co-chair of the Education Committee, chair of the World Work Place Committee, and is a member of the Community Services Committee.

Dorothy Leachman - president of Designed Moves, Inc., in Columbus, a company she and W. Daniel Cordray, president of Commercial Movers Inc., established in 1994. Designed Moves offers professional services ranging from conceptual interior space design and planning to move coordination, facility management and inventory assessments.

Prior to opening the company, Leachman worked for 11 years as an interior designer with Wolfgang Doerschlag Architects, Karlsberger Companies and Bohm-NBBJ. Leachman also is a member of the International Interior Design Association. She completed the National Council for Interior Design Certification (NCIDQ) in 1992.

A native of Cleveland, she resides in Upper Arlington. Leachman became a member of the Central Ohio IFMA Chapter in 1995, and her company joined the sponsors' list about three years later. She is continuing as chapter treasurer and as a member of the Community Relations Committee. She previously served as co-chair of the committee.

Gary Nuss, past president of the Central Ohio IFMA Chapter, and Columbus's Arena District are becoming synonymous.

Nuss recently became senior project manager for Nationwide Realty Investors, a division of Nationwide Insurance that is responsible for all of the company's capital improvements throughout the U.S and is an investment partner with other real estate developers.

Prior to this, Nuss was a project manager for Turner Construction Co. and responsible for the construction of the Arena District Infrastructure development.

At the moment, and for some time to come, Nuss and Nationwide are deeply involved in development of the city's newest urban growth area that when completed will feature a mix of business, entertainment, and residential space.

This 95-acre area bounded by N. High St., Neil Ave., Spring St. and the railroad tracks already is the site of Nationwide Arena, the $150 million, 18,500-seat home of the Columbus Blue Jackets, one of the two newest members of the National Hockey League.

Nuss just completed installation of the video wall system including an 18-foot by 32-foot video board on the north face of the Nationwide Parking Garage. The giant TV screen was first turned on New Year's Eve and featured live action of the Blue Jackets against the New Jersey Devils, who were battling inside the arena.

Nuss said the cold December weather prevented a large crowd from seeing the "inaugural," but a few persons were on hand. He said although the company hasn't begun to identify all the uses for the outdoor video wall, the largest in the Midwest, it most likely will be used for entertainment and to help create and maintain interest in the Arena District.

In addition to this, Nuss plans to add a number of four-sided kiosks throughout the area that will contain directions and informational graphics about the restaurants and other businesses that are opening in the district.

His current project is the development of a nine-screen cinema that will be owned by Nationwide and managed by the owners of the Drexel Theatres, Jeff and Kathy Frank.

"We have a very aggressive goal to open the cinema by September 1. It will be just south of Nationwide Blvd and west of Marconi Blvd. This is a $34 million project that includes a 1,400-car parking adjacent to the cinema and two retail and office buildings nearby," Nuss said.

While Nuss expects this project to keep him more than busy for most of the year, he also is associated with the company's Promo West development, an indoor/outdoor amphitheater that is expected to be in operation by the end of the summer. When operational, the entertainment facility will feature a 4,000-seat indoor auditorium and a 2,500-seat outdoor amphitheater. This facility is under construction west of Neil Ave. and south of the railroad tracks.

In addition to his association with Nationwide and Turner, Nuss served for four years as facilities and construction manager for the eastern region of AirTouch Cellular. In this position he was responsible for overseeing and coordinating all real estate construction, maintenance and repairs in the region.

Nuss joined IFMA about five years ago while working as a facilities manager for AirTouch Cellular.

"I was recruited by an IFMA member and thought it was a great way to better understand the role of a facility manager and to network with other facility managers within the chapter.

"I have enjoyed my term as president and feel that we accomplished several great things as a chapter in the year 2000, including:

· "Continued outstanding support from sponsors who contributed some $17,000 to the chapter that enabled us to provide a number of free service-related programs and courses for the members.

· "Hiring a professional writer for our Web site that has allowed us to add to the value of the site. We now provide additional information that helps relate what takes place at our gatherings and seminars, and also helps our members better understand what we as individuals do in the business world."

Nuss is a graduate of The Ohio State University with a bachelor's degree in civil engineering. In addition to his affiliation with IFMA, Nuss is a commander in the U.S. Navy Reserve. He and his wife, Pan, and their two children, Julie, 16, and Megan, 11, reside in Gahanna.

Sponsor Spotlight NBBJ

NBBJ is worldwide; it's also local.

NBBJ is the third largest architecture firm in the world with offices in six United States cities, Japan, Taiwan, and Norway.

One of the six U.S. cities is Columbus where you need only to hop into an automobile or board a bus to see the impact the firm has had on development in central Ohio and on the lives of the hundreds of thousands who live here.

Let's say you are southbound on I-71 from the city's northern limits. As you approach the downtown, you are greeted by a spectacular structure rising along and above the north freeway: Crew Stadium, a 22,555-seat stadium designed and built specifically for soccer. A stone's throw to the west is Nationwide Arena, the new, opulent home of the Columbus Blue Jackets.

NBBJ doesn't limit itself to sports venues, so before you leave the arena area in the downtown look for the nearby William Green Building, which houses the Bureau of Worker's Compensation, and the adjacent Three Nationwide Plaza. A little farther north stands the Hyatt Regency Hotel and the original Columbus Convention Center, which were built in the 1970s. Also in the downtown are the One Columbus Office Building, Business Service Center, the Vern Riffe Center, and the Columbia Gas of Ohio building.

Just east of the downtown is the Harold M. Nestor Academic Center at Columbus State University, and a short distance to the northwest stands the Bill Davis Baseball Stadium at The Ohio State University.

If you leave the city to the east, you will probably see the Huntington National Bank Service Center, the M/I Homes/Limited office building on the oval at Easton. Continuing east into Newark you will find the distinctive headquarters of the Longaberger Co., a 180,000-square-foot replica of the market basket manufactured by the company.

If your departure is to the northwest, you will probably see the Bank One Corporate Center in the Polaris area near Powell that was designed by NBBJ, and where the firm is working on Phase II of the complex. Other Columbus and central Ohio projects underway include:

The Abercrombie & Fitch Corporate Headquarters and Distribution Center in New Albany; and Children's Hospital Research Building II, Ohio State Wetlands Education and Research Building, and Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio Headquarters Building, American Electric Power Parking Garage, and Bureau of Worker's Compensation Parking Garage, all in Columbus.

It's impossible to visit Columbus and not see something designed by NBBJ, which traces its beginning to World War II days when the firm was founded in Seattle by four architects: Naramore, Bain, Brady, and Johanson. The Columbus connection began in 1976 with a joint venture agreement with Columbus' Nitschke-Godwin-Böhm for the design of the Ohio Convention Center. The collaborative relationship led to the creation of Böhm-NBBJ in 1979. In 1991, the name was shortened to its present form.

Today, the company is the second largest architecture firm in the United States with major projects throughout North and South America, Central Asia, and Europe. NBBJ employs more than 850 professionals and, in addition to Columbus and Seattle, has offices in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Research Triangle Park in North Carolina, Tokyo, Taipei, and Oslo.

The firm's services include architecture, planning and urban design, interior design and space planning, graphic and environmental design, and economics and financial feasibility.

Some 300 persons are employed at the Columbus offices, 1555 Lake Shore Dr., where Friedrich K.M. Böhm serves as chairman of the firm. As chairman, Böhm is in charge of the firm's long-term strategic direction. In an interview with ThisWeek in New Albany newspaper in 1998, Böhm said:

"NBBJ recognized the potential in Columbus after the firm began working the first phase of the Columbus Convention Center in the mid-1970s. 'It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out this place was a good place to be. Columbus has been good for NBBJ and NBBJ has been good for Columbus. We are clearly committed to this community.'"

Last July, the firm was recognized by Columbus C.E.O. magazine as one of the 14 Best Places to Work in central Ohio, pointing out the firm's strong commitment to its employees and the Columbus community. The article, based on personal interviews with several NBBJ employees, praised the firm for its open flow of information from long-term business goals to financial information, its commitment to offering career paths; its excellent continuing education program, its Personal Development Wednesdays; and its annual travel awards.

NBBJ also has been a strong supporter of the Central Ohio IFMA Chapter for many years as an Initiator Level sponsor. In addition, two of the chapter's most supportive members are NBBJ employees. They are:

• Vicki Simons, principal, at NBBJ since 1988 and member of IFMA since 1984. She has served as co-chair of the Education, Programs, and Associate Relations Committees, and as vice president and president of the chapter.

• Stephanie Patton, facilities planner, at NBBJ since 1997 and member of IFMA since 1997. She has served as co-chair of the Programs Committee for three years.