By Stefan Yablonski
At first glance, Vincent “Vinny” Lobdell Jr. is the epitome of success.
But, really, what is success? A lot of money, a big house, fancy cars?
For Lobdell — and his family — success is the ability to live as you wish — and helping others.
“I always say, you know in my mind success is not a monetary number. Success comes down to being able to spend more time as one wishes,” he said. “If you are a stay-at-home mom and you have the ability to stay at home and take care of your children and live the lifestyle that you want — you have success. If success is being a social worker and supporting people with mental health needs if you can do that — that is success.
“But I truly believe that success really is individual. It comes down to being able to spend your time as you wish. If you can do that free of stress, with peace of mind that is true success.”
Born into a family of entrepreneurs, Lobdell’s story begins with his father, Vince, and his mother, Nancy, who instilled in him the values of kindness, hard work, perseverance and the importance of giving back.
“Growing up, I was surrounded by a community of peers who challenged me, inspired me and helped shape the person I am today,” he said. “My wife, Suzie, and our family have been my rock.”
He studied marketing and economics for four years at SUNY Oswego. Later on, he received an entrepreneurial master’s degree in partnership with the entrepreneurs association at MIT.
Now 43, Lobdell and his wife have four children “and one on the way.”
“My oldest son is Noah. My oldest daughter is Lainey. My middle son is Liam and my youngest daughter, Rory, she is 3. We have a boy on the way — due in May,” he said.
He was born and raised in Pulaski.
“Back when I was growing up I had a passion; I really loved sports and I always wanted to be a sportscaster. I wanted to be a hockey player — I would have loved to have realized my dream of playing in the NHL, but that didn’t happen. Outside of playing a professional sport, I really would have loved to be a sportscaster,” he said.
One of the top sportscasters out there, Dick Vitale, is a close friend, he added.
“For me, I like commercial real estate. I like the entrepreneurial side. I like buying and seeing real estate come to life,” he said. “I wasn’t really sure back then what I wanted to do. I had always worked with my father for summers.”
His early career was rooted in air quality, a field that opened doors to international experiences and deepened his understanding of global health issues and global business, he explained.
In 2003, they began by building air-cleaning equipment for other companies. Direct sales and marketing companies would rely on Lobdell and his father to design a product with a certain airflow velocity and a certain efficiency. Then they would manufacture it for them.
Vince Lobdell had been in the air cleaning space and in manufacturing since the mid-1980s.
“My father made a shift to thinking about air filtration, an undervalued and underserved market at the time and essentially was a pioneer in the air cleaning and filtration market,” his son said. said.
HealthWay
Lobdell and his father and his father founded HealthWay Family of Brands in 2003.
The Pulaski-based company makes air purifiers. It grew exponentially during the pandemic.
Tens of thousands of HealthWay purification systems have been placed in the New York City School District, the largest school system in the country, in the Chicago Public Schools and hospitals around the country, including Upstate Medical University, Crouse and Oswego in Central New York, according to reports in early 2021.
As they evolved the business, they served many markets and strategies which included dealers, direct to consumer, distribution and others.
“Most importantly, we spent a lot of time creating and marketing products that actually made a difference improving indoor air quality and having an impact on people in homes, hospitals and everywhere in between,” he added.
Along the way they knew how important it would be to build brand value. So over the 20-year journey, they built three very strong global market facing brands.
1. HealthWay: their platform brand which served the business-to-business dealer and distributor market
2. Pure Wellness: primarily a hospitality, licensed service brand that provided a turnkey wellness solution for hotels and office spaces.
3. Intellipure: in 2017 Lobdell launched Intellipure to focus more on the business to consumer market. The product line quickly became the fastest growing sector of their business.
HealthWay was a small but fast-growing business manufacturing medical-grade air purifiers. During the pandemic it experienced soaring growth as demand for its products skyrocketed.
“It’s been intense,” said Lobdell, HealthWay’s president at the time. “It’s been just such a substantial demand.”
In 2020, they made a decision to sell the company.
“It was my time to find new ways to serve this world,” he said.
At the time Healthway and its sister companies were providing solutions to the largest corporations, governments and schools around the world. Some of the contracts included providing filtration to NYC schools, JP Morgan, several health ministries around the world and even being the first to provide commercial solutions on the ground in Wuhan, China where the pandemic began.
They went through a minority sale in 2020. It was sold to a private equity firm for an undisclosed amount of money. The family maintained a minority stake in the company.
“We sold the majority in 2021 to a larger company,” he said. “We are no longer involved in the company.”
These days, he said, he leverages his diverse experiences to guide others on their entrepreneurial journeys.
“I strive to create value in every interaction, whether it’s helping a startup refine their business strategy or connecting like-minded individuals to foster collaboration,” he added. “My passion lies in empowering others to realize their potential and make a positive impact on the world.
“I’m heavily invested. I have around 30 different investments right now — from commercial real estate to hospitality to mental health software and a bunch of small startups in real estate, software and others.”
“People reach out to us through vinnylobdell.com and we get many different ideas on a weekly basis. We always look at things from a pretty simple preface,” he said.
Vinny’s criteria: one, do we like the people; two, is the business something that we are interested in, does it align with our values; and three, can we add value to this investment group? he explained.
“And if all three boxes are checked, we decide if it’s something we want to invest in,” he said. “It really comes down to: is the investment something that we really believe in from a cultural perspective — something that will make the community better, add value, do the people have similar values to us, do they like to invest in the community and can we add value to it, does our experience add value to the business and help it grow quicker?”
Philanthropic endeavors
Lobdell’s older brother, Rusty, died by suicide in 1995 when he was 19; he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia.
“For me and our family, philanthropy is more than just a word. It’s a deeply personal commitment to making a positive difference in the world. What it comes down to — the passing of my brother 29 years ago, on March 3 — was something that really touched and changed our lives,” he said. “Mental health is something we are very, very committed to as a family. We really believe that no family should ever have to go through what we endured and we are trying to take what we went through and help others.”
Mental health is really important for the Lobdell family.
“I could tell that my mother thought people were starting to forget my brother and as a father now I can never imagine going through what my mother went through.
In her mind she said she could never save him and the reality is —no one could have saved him. For us, our goal now is to make sure my brother’s memory is never lost.”
And that’s one of the reasons that, in 2022, the Lobdell family donated $1 million to the Lakeview Center for Mental Health and Wellness in memory of Rusty. It’s the largest the Oswego Health system has ever received and among the largest donations to a mental health facility in Upstate New York.
Michael Backus, president and CEO at Oswego Health, said that the Lobdell family’s decision to not just donate money but also speak out about their son’s struggle will help reduce the stigma of mental illness in the rural community.
“To have a local family that’s not only been extraordinarily successful from a business perspective but has been directly touched through Rusty … will really go a long way towards reinforcing the importance of what we do every day,” Backus said in 2022.
“Most of that money will go to programming. We want people to receive training in suicide risk and prevention — school administrators and teachers, bus drivers and custodial staff. They touch our kids so often. We want to get those people trained and educated properly. Programs like that really go deep within a community,” Lobdell said.
“The gift from the Lobdell family naming our 42,000 square foot mental health and wellness facility in honor of Rusty was just one component of the impact this family wanted to achieve. Naming the facility gives it a local tie to a philanthropic family who cares deeply about the work done inside its walls,” Backus said in February. “It also demonstrates to the community the We Care mantra that Oswego Health perpetuates every day as we are working with the family on initiatives to build awareness around mental health and wellness, especially within our local schools. To have our brand tied together with the Lobdell family and their generosity speaks to the confidence Central New York has in our caregivers and the level of care we’re developing to aid our community when it needs it the most.”
Friends and family support
“I have a great group of friends. I have a family that is so supportive of my goals and desires. So I spend a lot of time with my friends traveling. We love to travel,” Vinny said. “There is nothing better to be a success — to serve those who are less fortunate. It’s a belief that my friends have picked up and gone with.”
He said he loves to work out and loves to cook.
“I’m an avid chef, I love to cook and entertain for people. My kids are all very active with sports. I love to partake in those. I’m a Syracuse University basketball fan,” he said.
He spends a lot of time with his family.
“Also, one of my passions is helping others achieve their drams and goals,” he said. “I spend a lot of time working with other businesses and seeing how I can help other people realize their dream.
“I love to fish, but haven’t been able to much lately; my travels keep me busy. My childhood best friend, (Tony Gugino), he has a fishing guide service. He is the one who taught me. I do fish all over the world, been fishing for the last 30 years,”
Where is the best fishing in the world?
“I definitely lean toward Pulaski, New York,” he said with a smile. “I truly believe that Pulaski is a hidden gem. When I was in business there I’d bring people from all over the world and they couldn’t believe that world-class fishing was right here in Pulaski, New York!
“I brought [former SU men’s basketball head coach] Jim Boeheim and we had a real blast, an amazing time. Jim is a very close personal friend. We’re actually going to the Final 4 together this year. We’ll be together at the ACC tournament, too. He’s someone I look up to and admire and really respect. We’re big supporters of his foundation.”
The key to a successful business is really focus and discipline, he explained.
“The key to everything in life if you want to succeed is discipline; if you want to grow a business big or small or in between, you have to be disciplined and stay focused on your goal,” he said. “The biggest problem I see with entrepreneurs is a lot of them have these great goals great plans but they don’t have the discipline to get where they need to be. One of the things I’ve learned over the years is hard work works!”
His father “is as busy as he’s ever been.” He now lives in Florida and “does a tremendous amount of real estate and also does a lot of investing with me. He’s my business partner and best friend. My mom and dad are still very happily married. My sister has four kids and they live in Pulaski.”
