Clarendon Insurance
Financial Staffing
Expansions
Name Changes
Leaving Town
Management Moves
Deaths
Memorial Planned
Corrections or additions?
Life in the Fast Lane
These articles by Peter J. Mladineo and Barbara Fox were published
in U.S. 1 Newspaper on January 28, 1998. All rights reserved.
Top Of PageClarendon Insurance
Everybody says it’s hard to make money writing auto
insurance in New Jersey. Now comes news of an insurance company
planning
to make some hay in the Garden State. Its strategy: don’t offer auto
policies, just write commercial property and casualty insurance.
Robert Gage and Steven George have opened the first New Jersey office
of New York-based Clarendon Insurance, and they expect to grow to
12 employees this year. "On January 22 our filings were approved
and we are now open for business," says Gage. "We’re looking
forward to a long association in New Jersey."
When big insurers such as Geico and Safeco wanted to get out of the
private auto market, they had to abandon all their state business.
But when firms enter the state they are not obligated to write any
particular kind of insurance. Clarendon, for instance, will not offer
medical, life, accident, health, or auto. Instead, it will write
commercial
property and casualty insurance including workers compensation,
business
owners insurance, and even commercial automobile insurance if it goes
with the rest of the account.
"We consider this a very viable market," says Gage. Both he
and George came from Highlands Insurance on Lenox Drive in
Lawrenceville,
formerly American Reliance. Gage grew up in Syracuse and went to the
University of Maryland, Class of’65. He worked for insurance services
offices all over the country, moved from San Francisco to join
American
Reliance in 1986, and has been in the New Jersey market ever since.
"To many companies it is a challenging marketplace, but we see
it as a great opportunity," says Gage. "Knowing the
regulations
and statutes and the regulatory scheme — and being close to your
customer and being local — that’s the key to success."
The Clarendon Insurance Group, 133 Franklin Corner
Road, Suite 2E, Lawrenceville 08648. Robert Gage CPCU, vice president.
609-219-9100; fax, 609-219-9101.
Top Of PageFinancial Staffing
Next to computer firms, financial firms are among the
fastest growing in Princeton. Julie Giordano has opened an Olsten
office that focuses on providing workers for accounting and financial
positions, everything from accounting clerks to controllers, from
temporary, to temp to hire, and permanent placement. The next nearest
Olsten office that focuses on the financial area is in Iselin.
A psychology major at Rutgers New Brunswick, Class of 1991, Giordano
had worked on Wall Street for her father, a basketball star at West
Point (Class of 1961). She had also worked in risk analysis at Lehman
Brothers in New York and for another financial placement agency. But
with years of drama training behind her, she was also working as an
actress: she had parts in the Al Pacino movie "Carlito’s Way"
and on the soap opera "All My Children."
How does being an actress help her work? In helping her to find out
about people’s personalities, she suggests, "and even in taking
rejection."
Olsten Financial Staffing, 103 Carnegie Center,
Suite 307, Princeton 08540. Julie S. Giordano, market manager.
609-720-0700;
fax, 609-720-0764.
Top Of PageExpansions
MicroDose Technologies Inc., 4262 Route 1 North,
Monmouth Junction 08852. Amand Gumaste, president and CEO.
732-329-2401;
fax, 732-329-8502.
After changing the name of Advanced Medical Systems to MicroDose
Technologies
Inc., Amand Gumaste moved his three-person firm from 68 Weber Avenue,
Trenton, to 2,600 square feet on Route 1 North.
Gumaste, 45, got an undergraduate degree in India and a Ph.D from
the University of Toronto. He then spent 11 years at PA Consulting,
the former occupant of the award-winning crab-like structure on Route
571 in East Windsor. He was manager of the electronics group there.
MicroDose develops drug delivery technologies for pharmaceutical
companies,
such as inhalers for the treatment of asthma. "It really
represents
the next generation, they are very unlike today’s devices," says
Gumaste. He compares his work to that of Delsys, the nearby Sarnoff
spinoff that makes drug delivery systems using electrostatic powder
(September 19).
Pennington Montessori School, 102 West Franklin
Avenue, The Straube Center, Pennington 08534. 609-737-1331; fax,
609-730-1530.
The school has bought three acres on Route 31 in the Pennington Point
West Development to construct a 10,700 square foot building. Albert
S. Toto Jr. of Commercial Property Network represented both the buyer
and the seller, Pennington Properties. The school celebrates its 20th
anniversary this year and hopes to move in by the end of this year
or early next year.
Citizens for Independent Living, Box 600, Kingston
08528. Linda King, executive director. 732-297-8340.
Linda King has moved the office of this nonprofit from Main Street
in Kingston to temporary quarters; by spring she will have an office
in CIL’s brand-new apartment building, named "CIL Woods."
Located on the new section of Route 522 it will house CIL’s clients
— developmentally disabled adults. The temporary offices (at
Monmouth
Mobile Home) have a new phone; fax is the same as the phone.
The Princeton Institute, 2650 Route 130 North,
Constitution Center, Suite I, Cranbury 08512. John Clay, president.
609-409-0940; fax, 609-409-0941. E-mail: princetoninstitute@erols.com.
The medical education company has expanded from quarters at Princeton
Meadows Office Center to Cranbury. Associated with medical journal
publisher Multimedia Healthcare, the Princeton Institute designs
continuing
education courses for the full spectrum of healthcare professionals,
everything from clinical matters (diagnosis and treatment) to
financial
or administrative concerns (U.S. 1, November 6, 1996).
Top Of PageName Changes
Fox & Roach Inc. Realtors, 25 Route 31 South,
Pennington
Shopping Center, Pennington 08534. Lynn D. Ludecke, manager.
609-737-7900;
fax, 609-737-8004.
All of the Fox & Lazo real estate offices have changed their names
to reflect a merger with Roach Wheeler, a Philadelphia-based firm
with Charles "Chip" Roach at the helm. The Fox firm was
founded
by Fred Fox in 1986, and Bill Fox is co-chairman with Larry Flick
as president. The corporate headquarters has moved from Haddonfield
to Devon.
Gannett Fleming, 227 Wall Street, Research Park,
Princeton 08540. Robert Gan, branch manager. 609-279-9140; fax,
609-279-9436.
Eder Associates, the environmental engineering firm headquartered
in Locust Valley, New York, moved to 2,800 square feet in Research
Park. Two weeks later, it merged with Gannett Fleming, the
1,700-employee
civil engineering firm based in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. It was
founded
in 1915, and is not related to the newspaper chain.
Eder Associates, founded in 1970, was formerly located at 413
Riverview
Executive Park, Trenton. Its specialities include environmental
consulting
service, environmental remediation, surface water discharge
permitting,
air permitting, and engineering services. It also does system
engineering
design and construction management. Robert Gan, the office manager,
has a degree from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, (Class of
1991).
Top Of PageLeaving Town
Mettler-Toledo International, 69
Princeton-Hightstown
Road, Box 71, Hightstown 08520-0071. Maurice Knapp, president.
609-448-3000;
fax, 609-586-5451. Home page: http://www.mico.mt.com.
Once 200 strong, the East Windsor outpost of the world’s largest maker
of scales and balances is now down to less than 60 employees, and
those will be gone by the summertime. The firm is building an 80,000
square-foot headquarters in Columbus, Ohio. Fewer than 20 of the
workers
will move to Ohio and the rest are taking a severance package. Founded
in 1954 as the U.S. headquarters of a Swiss firm, it merged with
Toledo
Scale in 1989, was bought by a prestigious private investment firm,
American European Associates, in 1996. It went public in November
and its stock, traded on the New York Stock Exchange (MTI) started
at 14 and now hovers at 16 and 17.
Accu Financial Services, 710 Old Bridge Turnpike,
South River 08882. Haresh C. Sheth, president. 732-238-6765; fax,
732-238-7721.
The financial services firm has moved its office from Deer Park Drive
to South River.
GORCA Systems Inc., 379 Princeton-Hightstown Road,
Building 2, Cranbury 08512. Charles R. Horton, president.
609-273-8200;
fax, 609-448-9155. Home page: http://www.gorca.com.
The aerospace engineering consulting firm closed its five-person
office
at 186 Princeton-Hightstown Road. The office was expanded in March,
1996. Its headquarters is in Cherry Hill.
GASI, the consulting arm of GORCA Systems, opened this office in 1990
to communicate with its client, GE Astro, located across the street.
Originally owned by RCA and now owned by Lockheed Martin, the facility
is due to be closed later this year. GORCA derived its name from the
acronym for "good old RCA."
The Infotec Group, 55 Princeton-Hightstown Road,
Suite 107, Princeton Junction 08550. Vivek Ratna, director.
314-205-0032.
This high-end computer training and consulting firm is working in
St. Louis and does not have a current address in Princeton.
John M. Apicella, 350 Alexander Street, Princeton
08540. 212-803-5102.
The criminal defense lawyer has consolidated and now operates out
of a Brooklyn office.
The Maids, 826 West Trenton Avenue, Morrisville
19067. Ellen Uzialko. 215-428-3533; fax, 215-428-3543.
This franchise of the home cleaning service, formerly owned by Phyllis
Schulman, has been sold and has moved from Princeton Service Center
to Morrisville. The service specializes in removing common allergens
such as dust mites, animal dander, mold, mildew, and insect debris.
Savola Inc., 2137 Route 33, Lexington Square
Commons,
Trenton 08690. Basit Siddiqui, president. 609-584-9590; fax,
609-584-9495.
This olive oil import business has vacated its office and has no local
number.
Princeton Marketing Group, 11 Deer Park Drive,
Suite 113-2, Monmouth Junction 08852. Danute Audenas-Corcoran,
manager.
732-438-1140.
This firm, which marketed environmentally safe products, has
apparently
closed its Route 1 office. The number was disconnected and no further
information was available.
Fronczak & Associates, 100 Canal Pointe Boulevard,
Suite 212, Princeton 08540. Dan Fronczak, president. 609-520-8810;
fax, 609-520-0234.
Dan Fronczak has sold his business insurance firm to the
Parsippany-based
Turner Group; Fronczak’s business concentrated on clients from the
manufacturing, hospitality, and contracting industries. "Our new
larger firm has the resources of 30 insurance carriers, nine offices,
and more than 200 employees," says Louise Gernhardt, an account
executive who has moved to the Turner office at 9 Throckmorton Street,
Freehold, now known as the Turner Group’s Fronczak division. Dan
Fronczak
is remaining with the firm but is on vacation through February.
Top Of PageManagement Moves
Corner House, 369 Witherspoon Street, Princeton
08540. Mitchell Douglas, executive director. 609-924-8018; fax,
609-497-9101.
Mitchell Douglas replaces Linda Meisel as executive director on
February
2. Meisel has resigned to be executive director of Jewish Family and
Children’s Services. Douglas was assistant executive director of a
Staten Island-based agency.
CH Capital Investments, 1 Palmer Square, Suite
305, Princeton 08542. Martin Chooljian. 609-924-7958.
Martin Chooljian has joined the board of trustees at Institute for
Advanced Study. He was formerly the president of Penn Corporation,
which he helped found, and the treasurer of Litton Industries. A
graduate
of Harvard (Class of 1952), Chooljian has had a lifelong interest
in physics.
Top Of PageDeaths
Ruth Hamill, 44, on January 19. She was senior vice
president
of Hase Schannen on Clarksville Road.
Karin Bergwall Stratmeyer, 53, on January 22 from injuries
suffered in an auto accident on Vaughn Drive. She was president of
Princeton Entrepreneurial Resources at 600 Alexander Road (U.S. 1,
April 26, 1995).
Jayne C. Casey, 59, on January 21. She worked at the
Messenger
Press and Calton Homes.
Valerie A. Leveridge, 57, on January 23. She worked at
Peterson’s Guides and was active in Sweet Adelines.
John F. Hoff III, 58, on January 25. He was formerly
president
of First National Bank of Princeton and chairman of United Jersey
Bank. A Mass of Christian Burial will be Saturday, January 31, at
11 a.m. at St. Paul’s Church.
Kevin C. Clancy, 42, on January 26. He was vice president
of private banking at PNC Bank. A Mass of Christian Burial will be
Thursday, January 29, at 10 a.m. at St. Anne’s Church on
Lawrenceville
Road.
Top Of PageMemorial Planned
Storey Memorial. A service will be Saturday, January 31,
at 2 p.m. in the Shepherd Commons Room of Princeton Day School to
commemorate the life of Carl C. Storey, of Princeton Pike-based Quinn
and Storey, who died January 14.
n
Corrections or additions?
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