Grand Forks businessman part of closing bell event at stock exchange

A Grand Forks businessman helped bring the stock trading day in New York to a ceremonial close Wednesday.

Phil Gisi, president and CEO of Edgewood Group based in Grand Forks, was at the New York Stock Exchange Wednesday to help ring the closing bell. Gisi was there as a board member of the Tulsa, Okla.-based Cypress Energy Partners, which went public in January and was trading at $22.04 a share at the end of Wednesday.  

“Ringing the closing bell is kind of a tradition for companies that go public,” Gisi said Tuesday. The opening bell Wednesday morning captured a little more national attention, as the creators of the addicting mobile game “Candy Crush” went public.

An NYSE spokesman said the bell-ringing can commemorate a number of occasions, including a new product launch, an initial public offering or an anniversary. The event can provide some public exposure to the company, as a number of national media outlets observe the stock exchange.

While the bell-ringing is largely ceremonial, and although Gisi didn’t physically ring the bell, he said the trip to New York will provide an opportunity for Cypress leadership to learn more about how the exchange works and the rules and regulations that come with being a publicly traded company. Cypress provides wastewater disposal and other water environmental services to oil and natural gas producers, and performs pipeline inspections.

 “There’s a lot of things that, as a corporate company, when you sit on a board, that you have to be careful about,” he said.

Gisi became a member of the Cypress board of directors after that company bought saltwater disposal wells in western North Dakota from SBG Energy Services, which is a part of the Edgewood Group.

SBG was cofounded by Gisi in 2011 and works in the oil and gas industry with offices in Grand Forks and Dickinson, N.D. It owns a fleet of 160 semis and trailers and operates rail yards in Bismarck and Richardton, N.D.

Edgewood is a group of businesses involved in senior housing, assisted living services, multi-family housing and real estate development. It employs about 50 people in downtown Grand Forks.

Several people contacted by the Herald hadn’t heard of any other Grand Forks businesspeople participating in the closing bell event, and nor had Gisi.

But, he said: “I’m sure I’m not the first.”