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CBIA BizCast

CBIA BizCast

By: Connecticut Business & Industry Association
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 A podcast for the business-minded in Connecticut. Interviews consist of business and community leaders who are shaping the future of Connecticut’s economy. The CBIA BizCast provides new content every other week, introduces members of the business community, and tells stories about how businesses are innovating and growing in Connecticut! BizCast provides new content every other week, introduces members of CBIA staff, and tells stories about how businesses are innovating and growing in Connecticut!All rights reserved Economics
Episodes
  • Reflecting on a Bioscience Career

    Reflecting on a Bioscience Career
    Jul 10 2025
    He’s not calling it retirement. But after a successful career as CBIA senior counsel and executive director of the Connecticut Bioscience Growth Council, Paul Pescatello is ready for “a little bit of rebalancing.” Pescatello joined the CBIA BizCast to reflect on his career and the state of the biotech industry. Pescatello started his career as a banking and insurance regulatory lawyer with Shipman and Goodwin. “They needed somebody to do some lobbying to start a new bank,” he said. “There was actually legislation needed to make it happen. “So, I volunteered and that's sort of how I learned how to lobby in Connecticut.” Pescatello’s interest in the bioscience and pharmaceutical industry arose from a family crisis. “My oldest brother, who I was really close to, came down with glioblastoma, which is a really, really terrible form of brain cancer,” he said. “I think when something like that happens to you or to somebody you know really well— you want to do something. “You want to channel your energies into something that would help this person or help people in the future.” He said being involved in his brother’s care and treatment drew him to the research that pharmaceutical companies were doing. “I really love the industry. It was such a fascinating industry,” he said. Pescatello started doing pro bono work in the area and ran a bioscience advocacy organization. He joined CBIA in 2014, and started managing the Connecticut Bioscience Growth Council. Pescatello said his goal was to educate people that the innovation and research done by the pharmaceutical industry was key to solving the healthcare crisis. “People here at CBIA have heard me talk about it over and over again—as costly as some drugs are, they really are a cost saver to the overall health system,” he said. Pescatello said that a major expense in the cost of drugs is the vast amount of research and development that goes into the process. “It's just hard to wrap your mind around the really unique research and development arc of bringing a drug from idea to FDA approved products,” Pescatello said. It takes $2.7 billion and about 10-12 years to bring a drug from idea to product. “When legislators ask, ‘why are drug prices so high here?’ It’s true, we really do pay the world’s R&D.” Pescatello credited the buy-in from legislatures and administrations to understand the importance the industry carries in the state. That buy-in has led to Connecticut being at the forefront of research and development tax credits for biotech companies. “They're spending tons and tons of money, but they have no income coming in,” Pescatello said. “So those research and development tax credits—they can carry them forward into the future.” He said it’s critical for the state to stay competitive to support and grow the industry. “Things like the research and development tax credits—other states have copied that,” he said. “We have to keep in the game on that.” Pescatello said it’s been satisfying to see the growth of the industry in Connecticut. “I drive a lot of satisfaction from the range of companies that are here and the range of products that come out of Connecticut,” he said. “We should all really take a victory lap for how big the industry is in Connecticut and how sustainable it is.” As he “rebalances,” Pescatello said he's looking forward to spending more time with his five grandchildren. But he said he plans to continue his advocacy for the bioscience industry. “I love the industry,” he said. “I really care about it in terms of its effect on all of us and on patients and disease—understanding the mechanisms of disease and finding treatments and cures for disease.” ________________________________________ The CBIA BizCast is made possible through the generous support of Google. Please rate, review, and subscribe to the BizCast wherever you get your podcasts—we appreciate your support!
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    29 mins
  • Improving Operational Excellence

    Improving Operational Excellence
    Jun 26 2025
    For many warehouse companies and distribution centers, dealing with logistics, and facilities, and workforce development can be a challenge. That’s where The TAC Group comes in. “We’re a supply chain operations consulting firm,” Grace Napolitano, the company’s principal and business development executive, told the CBIA BizCast. “We are focused on operational excellence within distribution and fulfillment centers.” Napolitano and her husband Zack started the company in 2023 after he spent his career working with FedEx and other distribution companies. That experience included working with companies to implement new management systems. “He really kind of fell in love with that area and working with different companies to help with their operational excellence,” Napolitano said. “He had so much care for the people that worked for him. He really cared about what their life story was, not just how they could perform for him and for the operation.” Napolitano had a background in business operations, sales and marketing. She previously worked in the media industry including as publisher and lead national ad director for the Chicago Sun Times. “So, I said, ‘If you trust what I can do, I trust what you can do,’ and The TAC Group was born,” she said. Napolitano said the company focuses on helping businesses with third-party logistics, facility layout and design, leadership development. But she said they are most proud of their labor optimization programs. “We’re very passionate about making sure people enjoy coming to work and not just being kind of like a racehorse being whipped go faster, go faster,” she said. She added their goal is to give them “the why behind what we’re doing.” She highlighted the high-paced environment of working in a distribution center. “Distribution is a grind,” she said. “It’s 24/7—it’s multiple shifts. There are reports coming in at 3 am, there are holidays being missed, there’s birthdays being missed. “With The TAC group, it’s really our focus to connect with the frontline workers on a personal level.” Napolitano said that workforce retention is a significant challenge for distribution centers. She said when workers leave for a different company, it costs an average of $8,000 to replace and train them. “If we could just put that investment into coaching and training the managers to work with their frontline workers, to make them feel like they’re part of the organization, that they’re valued and that they matter—that really will help the businesses keep jobs here in Connecticut,” Napolitano said. Napolitano said a big part of their work is to train managers to work with and support their employees. She added many of those managers were previously frontline workers themselves, and don’t necessarily know how to coach and guide other workers. “We’re giving them that skill set to be great leaders and great managers of the next generation of managers and executives,” she said. Related Links: The TAC Group Website: http://thetacgrp.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tacgroupconsulting/ Grace Napolitano on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gracenapolitano/ CBIA Website: https://www.cbia.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/cbia/
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    24 mins
  • 2025 Legislative Session Review

    2025 Legislative Session Review
    Jun 12 2025
    More than 4,000 bills were introduced during the 2025 General Assembly session, with only 286 gaining final legislative approval. The CBIA BizCast team sat down with CBIA vice president of public policy Chris Davis to break down the session and some of the important bills that will impact the business community. “There were a lot of long nights right at the end of session, especially in those last few days,” Davis said. Much of the focus in the last days of the session centered on the state budget. The $55.8 billion budget adopted by the state legislature uses fiscal guardrail workarounds and business tax hikes to increase state spending by $2.6 billion over the next two years. Davis said the workarounds to the fiscal guardrails are troubling for businesses. “For us in the business community, they’re not just talking points these caps,” he said. “They are truly what gives us predictability, sustainability, and stability. “Boosting up that spending beyond what we can really afford is what gives us a lot of pause, because that’s going to lead to future tax increases, something that we know that businesses simply can’t afford here in Connecticut.” The budget did create a new endowment that will pay for early childhood development programs. “We’re happy to see that this expansion happens because getting more people back into the workforce, having them have the ability to afford that childcare in order to go back to work is very important,” Davis said. “We just felt like there was much better ways that we could have funded it and be more sustainable over a longer period of time.” Davis said the session did feature some important “wins” for the business community and state economy. Those bills include reforming the apprenticeship hiring ratios for trades industries, raising the R&D tax credit for bioscience companies, and addressing potentially costly changes to the workers’ compensation system. Davis also highlighted the importance of key permitting reforms and replacing the outdated Transfer Act with new release-based cleanup regulations. “We really see this as one of the biggest economic wins that we’ve had in decades here,” he said. “We’re really looking forward to working with our partners in state government in order to implement them.” Davis did note that there was a lot of focus on preventing costly labor mandates and healthcare policies from being enacted. While the 2025 session may be over, that does not mean the work ends for CBIA’s policy team. They’re working with state agencies to implement the new regulations and other bills. And the team will also spend the coming months engaging with members and legislators. That includes coordinating legislator visits at businesses around the state, listening tours, and reviewing CBIA’s annual Survey of Connecticut Businesses. Those conversations and feedback will help inform CBIA’s policy solutions for the 2026 legislative session. “It’s important for businesses to know that we are here getting your feedback, not only from things that just passed this past session, but also things that you would like to see change going forward,” Davis said. Related Links: CBIA Website: https://www.cbia.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/cbia/ Chris Davis LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopher-c-davis/
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    25 mins

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