Applied Sciences Group, Inc.

Tom Ulbrich's two sons left the area to find jobs. One works as a pharmacy resident at Ohio State University. The other is an investment banker in Manhattan.

Ulbrich runs two small businesses in Alden -- Mow More Landscape Supplies Inc. and Ulbrich's Garden Center -- and acknowledges there's a stigma about Western New York as a place not usually synonymous with jobs and economic prosperity.

He wants to change that, and is positioned to help begin the shift. In May, he started his new job as executive director of the University at Buffalo Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership (CEL).

"They didn't see Buffalo as the land of opportunity, and that frustrates me," he said of his sons' leaving.

In 2003, Ulbrich attended the Core program through the CEL, a resource for developing area businesses. Core focuses on business leaders' management skills and profitability of their firms.

Ulbrich has been with the garden center full-time since 1980. In the late 1980s, he founded Mow More, which sells high-wear parts and equipment to the commercial landscape industry.

"I was buying so many parts I began reselling them," he said. "One thing led to another and the business mushroomed."

Since taking over as executive director, he transferred day-to-day operations of both companies to his general managers.

The transition wasn't difficult, he said, because he always had planned to spend the second half of his career in community service, and he had delegated authority before.

That was last year, when he ran for -- and lost -- the District 5 Erie County legislator election to Kathy Konst, D-Lancaster. The silver lining, he said, was the CEL opportunity.

"I get to try to create opportunities in Western New York, which is why I ran for office in the first place," he said. "This set me up for a position better suited for me and my talents."

For four months while he ran for office, he stepped away from his businesses to campaign full-time and transferred oversight to his managers. Today, Mow More and Ulbrich's are once again under similar stewardship.

"I generally have a love for business and creating things, and creating new jobs has always excited me," he said.

Growing up in an entrepreneurial environment made him think he'd someday be involved in a business. As executive director, he's now involved in many.

"He has the energy and the initiative," said Applied Sciences Group Inc. President Paul Buckley of Ulbrich. Buckley, in his third year as mentor chair on the center's board, foresees more collaboration among area small businesses and the university.

"Certainly he heads an organization trying very hard to knit what's coming out of the university with the needs of the community," he said.

"There should be an increase in collaboration between those two groups, without a doubt," added Shield Manufacturing Inc. CEO David Berghash, who called Ulbrich's hiring a natural fit. "Tom brings to the picture where that link is going to happen and, theoretically, more jobs to Buffalo."

About that, Ulbrich said: "People perceive things here are better (than before). We're in the middle of a renaissance right now."

He also said what's great about being in his position is he understands the people he works with every day.

"I know what its like to go to work," he said.

Source: New CEL program targets anti-WNY stigma