Highland Ventures Ltd. will invest $8.2 million to relocate its headquarters operations from Glenview, Illinois, to Brentwood, company officials say, creating 80 jobs during the next five years.

Located at 209 Powell Place, Highland Ventures’ new Tennessee headquarters will serve as the hub for the company’s brands: Family Veterinary Group, Stay Fit 24, Highland Pure Water & Ice and Legacy Commercial Property.

Founded in 1984, Highland Ventures Ltd. is a holding company to top brands in the restaurant, fitness, video rental and commercial real estate industries. The company employs roughly 2,500 people across the country.

“The greater Nashville region is turning into a food service, health care and real estate hub that fits our growth strategy across all business lines,” says Keith Hoogland, president and CEO, Highland Ventures Ltd. “We are thrilled to be opening a new Highland Ventures corporate office just south of Nashville in Brentwood.”

VUMC only S.E. hospital named to Honor Roll

Vanderbilt University Medical Center has again been named to the Honor Roll of America’s Best Hospitals by U.S. News & World Report in the publication’s 2022-23 ranking of health care facilities. VUMC is No. 1 in Tennessee, No. 1 in the Metro Nashville area and the only health system in the Southeast to be named to this year’s Honor Roll.

U.S. News uses structural measures and peer reputational scores to rank hospitals. This year, U.S. News evaluated more than 4,500 hospitals, and only 164 were nationally ranked in one medical specialty or more. Twenty hospitals earned Honor Roll status in this year’s ranking.

In addition to inclusion in the Honor Roll, VUMC was nationally ranked in nine data-driven nationally ranked specialties – cancer, cardiology and heart surgery, diabetes and endocrinology, ear, nose and throat, gastroenterology and GI surgery, geriatrics, oobstetrics and gynecology, pulmonology and lung surgery, and urology.

VUMC partners to study clinical trial diversity

Vanderbilt University Medical Center is partnering with Yale School of Medicine, Morehouse School of Medicine and the Research Centers in Minority Institutions Coordinating Center at the Morehouse School of Medicine in an initiative aimed at increasing diversity in clinical trials and addressing systemic barriers to participation by communities of color.

The Equitable Breakthroughs in Medicine Development partnership is an industrywide, community-based effort created to enhance clinical trial diversity through the development and support of a network of clinical trial sites in underserved areas. EQBMED is unique because it brings together pharmaceutical companies and academic institutions, subject matter experts, providers and community leaders.

The EQBMED will select a network of 10 initial community-based clinical trial sites in the Southeast and Southwest over the next 18 months to assess progress and determine the best next steps to enhancing clinical trial diversity.

The goal of the learning phase will be to evaluate and explore new collaborations, tools and infrastructures intended to address historically systemic barriers that have limited participation in biomedical research by populations of color.

Pilot Co., Bridgestone to monitor fleet tires

Bridgestone Americas and Pilot Company announced a collaboration on an advanced tire monitoring and service network for commercial fleets at select travel center locations.

This collaboration leverages Bridgestone Fleet Care mobility solutions and Pilot Company’s network of travel centers to provide more convenient, frequent and actionable fleet tire intelligence. The initial trial phase will begin this summer with a rollout of the tire monitoring technology at 200 Pilot and Flying J locations.

Each router currently being installed in the fuel canopies of select Pilot and Flying J travel centers is linked to the Bridgestone tire pressure monitoring solution, IntelliTire and transmits real-time tire data in two minutes or less from trucks and buses to fleet managers.

IntelliTire combines durable hardware with a software application to allow fleet operators to proactively address specific tire issues and mitigate unplanned maintenance, reducing downtime and improving driver safety.

Launch Tennessee announces 3686 speakers

Entrepreneurial education nonprofit Launch Tennessee has announced the speaker lineup for this year’s 3686 entrepreneurial event, featuring some of the country’s leading innovative and entrepreneurial voices and a partnership with Startup Showdown.

The Nashville-based nonprofit – which works to make Tennessee the most startup-friendly state in the nation – will host the festival from Sept. 27-29 at Marathon Music Works.

Thanks to a new partnership with venture capital firm Panoramic Ventures, the festival will feature Tennessee’s first Startup Showdown, a pitch competition investing $120,000 into the winning startup.

This year’s 3686 will also include an expanded one-on-one matchmaking event that pairs entrepreneurs with investors and corporations. This unique aspect is back by popular demand, after the last in-person session resulted in 400+ meetings.

The two-day festival will also feature top investors and entrepreneur fireside chats, panel discussions, networking opportunities and live music entertainment, and leading brands Amazon and The Roster Agency have signed on as sponsors.

Featured speakers will include:

• Eric Bahn, co-founder and general partner, Hustle Fund

• Olivia Capra, principal, Frist Cressey Ventures

• Morgan DeBaun, founder and CEO, Blavity Inc.

• Cam Doody, co-founder and general partner at Brickyard

• Tara Fung, co-founder and CEO, Co:Create

• Samara Mejia Hernandez, founding partner, Chingona Ventures

• Marlon Nichols, co-founder and managing general partner, MaC Venture Capital

• Stuart McWhorter, commissioner of economic and community development, State of Tennessee

• Jules Miller, partner, Mindset Ventures and founder, VC3 DAO

• Maria Salamanca, partner, Unshackled Ventures

The festival, named after the geographic coordinates of Nashville, started in 2013 and has welcomed attendees from across the country. It has grown to attract national speakers, investors and entrepreneurs.

Information: www.attend3686.com

Innovien expands with new Nashville office

Innovien Solutions, a Georgia-based technology solutions firm and high-performing provider of technical project services and staff augmentation for mid-to-enterprise clients, has opened a new office in The Gulch.

“We’ve had our eye on the Nashville market for a couple of years, and we have a lot of confidence in the team we are sending to help establish our presence in that market,” says Camryn Mastel, Innovien’s founder and CEO. “We’re already off to the races servicing local clients and growing our internal team in the heart of the Music City,”

Nashville has become home to a growing economy and is quickly becoming a technology powerhouse, especially within the education and health care Sectors, areas that Innovien is primed to support.

Verustat acquires One Healthcare Solution

Verustat, a full-service remote patient monitoring (RPM) system, has acquired Texas-based One health care Solution.

OneHS’s chronic care software will help strengthen Verustat’s commitment to providing physicians with top-tier medical technology to improve patient care while also opening up new revenue streams. The software expansion will allow Verustat to integrate with a practice’s existing electronic medical record system and enable physicians to create automated, customized care plans for a host of chronic illnesses and conditions.

Verustat clients will have the option to add chronic rare management, annual wellness visits and medication reconciliation to their current Verustat services. New Verustat clients can choose the entire suite or decide between remote patient monitoring and the three new product offerings.

Information: www.verustat.com

Amazon EV delivery vehicles begin rollout

Amazon began its rollout of custom electric delivery vehicles, produced by EV manufacturer Rivian, in nine U.S. cities last week, including Nashville.

Other cities getting the vehicles are Baltimore, Chicago, Dallas, Kansas City, Missouri, Phoenix, San Diego, Seattle and St. Louis. The company says it expects to add thousands of the custom electric delivery vehicles in more than 100 cities by the end of the year.

Amazon has been testing deliveries with Rivian pre-production vehicles since 2021, delivering over 430,000 packages and accumulating over 90,000 miles.

Fintech group Celero partners with Preds

Celero Commerce, a top 10 non-bank payment processor, is now the preferred payments partner of the Nashville Predators.

The Nashville-headquartered financial technology firm will provide payment processing services to the Predators. Celero provides electronic transaction processing to community and regional banks nationwide and serves over 50,000 merchants across the country, processing approximately $20 billion in annual card volume.

Celero offers payment processing services, business management software and data intelligence to small and medium-sized businesses, empowering them to drive growth and profitability.

Leadership change at Tennessee DCS

Margie Quin will be the state’s new commissioner for the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services (DCS), effective Sept. 1.

Quin has more than 25 years of experience in law enforcement, including two decades as a special agent at the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI). Quin earned her bachelor’s degree at Auburn University and master’s degree at Cumberland University.

Quin serves as the chief executive officer of End Slavery Tennessee, a nonprofit organization focused on efforts to end human trafficking.

Quin will succeed Jennifer Nichols, who has served the department since 2019.

Nichols came to DCS after two decades as a prosecutor who tried many child abuse, child homicide and high-profile cases, the last being the Holly Bobo murder. While Nichols was Commissioner, the department’s Child Protective Services division was restructured to include specialized teams trained for triage and immediate response to crises involving serious child physical abuse.