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Broderick retires as CEO of Turning Technologies
By Kalea Hall
YOUNGSTOWN
Mike Broderick has retired as chief executive officer of the downtown tech company Turning Technologies.
But Broderick, a founder of the company, doesn’t consider this next step his retirement.
“It’s just changing roles and slowing down a little bit,” he said. “It’s been 15 years almost to the day since we started Turning and I have been doing this job.”
Broderick will remain on the board of directors for the company and a major shareholder. Ethan Cohen, who has been with the company since April as chief operating officer/chief technology, is the company’s new CEO.
“He has certainly done very well,” Broderick said. “I felt this was a great time [to retire]. The company is in a great place.”
Turning Technologies was founded in 2002 as a company looking to make response technology that was more affordable and user-friendly.
Turning was supported by the Youngstown Business Incubator, which helps technology start-up companies get off the ground.
Jim Cossler, Huntington Bank entrepreneur in residence and chief executive officer, said Turning had a vision for what to change in the industry and how to change it – and executed that vision. Turning was one of the first companies the YBI worked with after it switched to a technology-based incubator in 2001.
“It’s kind of end of an era for us,” Cossler said of Broderick’s retirement.
Turning, like the YBI, faced the same disbelief that leading technology companies could not be launched in Youngstown, Cossler said.
“A lot of people just told [Mike] flat out: ‘You are crazy,’” Cossler said.
Turning still launched in Youngstown, and within a couple of years, it received national attention for its software called TurningPoint, which allows audiences and students to respond to questions presented by a speaker or teacher. Five years after its launch, Turning was recognized as the fastest-growing, privately held software company in the U.S. by Inc. Magazine.
“It brought a lot of not only national attention, but global attention,” Cossler said.
Over the last three years, the company has evolved from selling desktop software to cloud-based solutions.
“All of new sales are cloud sales,” Broderick said. “It’s proving to be a much better way to do business. It’s now subscription sales versus one-time sales. It gives us more stability.”
Today, Turning has more than 20 million customers that are K-12 schools, universities and businesses in more than 100 countries. Outside of its Youngstown headquarters, Turning has locations in Scottsdale, Ariz.; Fort Wright, Ky.; Belfast, Northern Ireland; and Amsterdam, Netherlands. Turning employs about 250, with most of the employees in Youngstown.
Cohen has more than 20 years of experience working with technology companies. He has a bachelor of arts in applied mathematics from Harvard University and a master’s of business administration from Harvard Business School.
Cohen was impressed by the sense of community the company had, and he liked Turning’s mission of advancing education.
“I am honored to be following in Mike’s footsteps,” Cohen said. “There’s a great team with Turning.”