World Group
We don’t often think about what a complex effort it takes to get a new TV into our living rooms, or that trendy pair of athletic shoes on our feet. But that’s OK, because World Group has it covered. Founded in 1960, the global company has 900 employees with 220 in Rocky River, the site of its world headquarters since the early 1980s. Specializing in transportation, logistics, supply chain fulfillment and storage, World Group does it all for clients.
“We are heavily involved in the international supply chain to and from the United States,” says Frederick Hunger, the company’s CEO and chairman. “If it’s anything with shipping containers, we are involved, whether that is ocean freight or drayage, [as in] domestic movement. Our global presence includes interacting with Brazil, China, Vietnam and other countries.”
Think of that old song “Trains and Boats and Planes,” by Burt Bacharach, and you will understand the company’s transportation capabilities.
But it’s not just goods and cargo; it’s also people. World Group assists cruise ships with itinerary and voyage planning, customs clearance, tugboat connections, food and water supplies, and even personal help for crew members, which includes health care when a vessel is in a Great Lakes port.
“The slang term is ‘vessel husbandry’ for these services. Vessels give us their honey-do list,” says Hunger.
The Cleveland area has always been World Group’s home. Hunger says relocating senior management from around the country to Rocky River is not a problem because of the community’s good schools, accessibility and proximity to cultural and recreational opportunities, including those found on Lake Erie.
This year, the company founded the World Group Foundation, a nonprofit organization assisting local, national and international needs. Hunger calls the new effort an expanded way to give back.
Comsat Architects
“A civilization depends to a large extent on its communication facilities to provide not only the materials, but also the incentive for learning,” said visionary American scientist Donald Hornig. But probably not even Hornig, born in 1920, could have predicted the warp speed needed to meet our world’s — indeed, the universe’s — ever-evolving and expanding communication requirements.
But Comsat Architects, a satellite telecommunications company in Rocky River that supports NASA, defense and space industries, has stepped up to propel us into the future.
Founded in 2014 by former NASA employee Dr. Kul Bhasin, the company helps link Earth to satellites and other out-of-this-world locations and systems. It has developed technologies that include CubeSat constellation intelligent routing, network self-healing, data storage and forwarding, and other high-tech systems and solutions.
Bhasin identifies his company’s four major areas of concentration as: lunar communication for NASA’s Artemis mission, which plans to land the first woman and person of color on the moon; supporting NASA space communications by private satellite companies, including SpaceX and Amazon Kuiper; the development and continuation of NASA’s Human Research Program, which provides safe space exploration for humans; and the creation of a small satellite in space to study climate change in Northeast Ohio.
Currently, the company has 30 employees and four co-ops and brings in five to 10 summer interns. Comsat Architects has received prestigious recognition for providing challenging job opportunities to young, brilliant, scientific minds who might have otherwise left Northeast Ohio to seek positions.
