Cincinnati 300 - 2021 by Cincinnati Magazine

THE MOST POWERFUL

BUSINESS LEADERS

FROM THE PUBLISHERS OF

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TABLE OF C ONTENT S

BANKING & FINANCE p.5

EDUCATION & HEALTH p.31

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES p.55

CREDIT UNIONS

MEDICAL SUPPLIES

LEGAL & ACCOUNTING

FINANCIAL ADVISORS

SCHOOLS

MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS

CONSUMER GOODS p.13

MANUFACTURING & TECH p.39

REAL ESTATE p.65

ENERGY

INFRASTRUCTURE

CONSTRUCTION

FOOD & BEVERAGE

LOGISTICS

HOME SALES

CULTURE & LEISURE p.21

NONPROFIT & GOVERNMENT p.49

INDEX

HOTELS & MEETINGS

FOUNDATIONS

77 / BY COMPANY NAME

RESTAURANTS

TRANSPORTATION

BANKS

AUTOS

ARTS

HOSPITALS

INDUSTRY

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

COV ER ILLU S TR ATI O N BY M U TI , FO LI O A R T / PH OTO G R A PH ( THIS PAG E) 4M A X / STO C K . A D O B E .CO M

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INSURANCE

ARCHITECTURE

74 / BY NAME

EDITOR LET TER

1818 Race Street, Suite 301 Cincinnati, OH 45202-2039 (513) 421-4300

CINCINNATIMAGAZINE.COM/CINCINNATI300

PUBLISHER

Ivy Bayer

S E C O N D V E R S E , S A M E A S T H E F I R S T. T H AT

song snippet has been running around my brain as we put together this year’s Cincinnati 300, our guide to the region’s most powerful business leaders. Last year’s publication featured insights from top CEOs about how they dealt with the pandemic’s impact on their personal and professional lives and how they scrambled to keep employees and customers safe while figuring out new supply chains, new distribution methods, and new products on the fly. It would be a one-time diversion into discussions of crisis management, we thought (and hoped). A peek into local business leaders’ mindsets during the Year of COVID. The plan was for the 2021 version of Cincinnati 300 to focus on economic recovery and new growth opportunities. And yet here we are, struggling to contain another COVID surge and uncertain about what the coming winter will bring. Efforts to shift attention to long-term growth and investment continue to be stymied by shortterm concerns about employee health, consumer reactions, and vendor relationships. For this year’s Cincinnati 300, our third annual, we asked CEOs to share how their leadership style has been changed by the pandemic and how they perceive their people to be handling the ups and downs of pandemic recovery. Quite a few executives are candid about the challenges they face making big changes in their leadership approach (willingly or by necessity) while clinging to the principles that made them and their companies successful in the first place. The lessons of the past two years are easy to spot throughout their remarks: More flexiblity, more transparency, more communication. The leaders featured in Cincinnati 300 are pulled from the region’s largest public, private, and nonprofit companies, as well as professional service organizations supporting them. We considered those who serve on key business-related oversight boards at the Chambers of Commerce, 3CDC, United Way, and ArtsWave. We sought broad representation across the business community, so we limit the profiles to one person per organization, with rare exceptions, and highlight similar numbers of companies in all eight categories.

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

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BANKING & FINANCE

William Bahl

Timothy Ballinger

Archie Brown

CO -F O UND ER AND CHA I R M A N Bahl & Gaynor

PRESIDENT AND CEO General Electric Credit Union

PRESIDENT AND CEO First Financial Bank

Bahl and Vere Gaynor founded the investment advisory ﬁrm in 1990. Bahl has almost 45 years in the business, working previously for Mellon Bank in Pittsburgh, Fifth Third in Cincinnati, and Northern Trust of Chicago. The employee-owned ﬁrm has more than 50 staff who help manage or advise clients with almost $17.5 billion in assets.

Ballinger has been with the company since 1994 and held the top job since 2015. It has expanded its membership to almost 200,000 members and has $4 billion in assets. The company is moving its corporate office to a 90,000-square-foot building it bought in Blue Ash two years ago. By year’s end, it will have added six new branch offices since last year: Oakley, Florence, Montgomery, Eastgate, South Lebanon, and West Chester.

Brown became the top executive when First Financial merged with MainSource Financial of Greensburg, Indiana, in 2018. It was cited by the Federal Reserve Board for outstanding performance under the Community Reinvestment Act. The company opened three branches in low- to moderate-income neighborhoods last year, including one at Paramount Square in Walnut Hills.

Hometown: Cincinnati Education: University of Florida (undergraduate), University of Michigan (MBA)

Hometown: Cincinnati Education: University of Cincinnati

(undergraduate), Xavier University (MBA), University of Delaware (master’s) How are your employees feeling as they and your business emerge from the pandemic? The past year actually accented our employee communications. As the result, while the pandemic certainly didn’t provide positive feelings, our regular communications were positives for the employees.

Hometown: Cincinnati Education: University of Georgia (undergraduate), Xavier University (MBA) What has been the toughest challenge for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic? It changed the way the

banking industry serves our clients, seemingly overnight. We made tens of thousands of outreach calls to check on consumers and business clients, created our own client relief programs, and helped facilitate the SBA’s Paycheck Protection Program.

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BANKING & FINANCE

Greg Carmichael

Timothy Elsbrock

Kay Geiger

CHAIRMAN AND CEO Fifth Third Bancorp

REGIONAL PRESIDENT Fifth Third Bank

REGIONAL PRESIDENT PNC Bank

Carmichael leads the parent company of the largest locally based bank that had $46 billion in local deposits and more than $200 billion in total assets in 2020. Fifth Third has almost 1,100 locations in 11 states and has focused its expansion strategy on the Southeast, with plans to open 30 branches mainly in that part of the country. Tim Spence, who has been chief strategy officer since 2015, was named President in 2020.

Elsbrock is in charge of the Greater Cincinnati operations of the region’s largest locally based bank. He joined the company in 1987 as a corporate treasury manager and served as Senior Vice President of the Wealth & Asset Management from 2007 to 2015. He oversees retail, mortgage, and commercial banking operations in addition to investment advisors.

Geiger has led regional operations of the Pittsburgh-based bank since 2008. PNC is the third-largest bank with more than $8 billion in local deposits. It has more than 60 locations in the area and announced in September that it would raise its minimum wage to $18 from $15, a move that increases pay for hundreds of local workers. Geiger began her career with Huntington and worked for U.S. Bank and LaSalle Bank before joining PNC.

Hometown: Cincinnati Education: University of Dayton

(undergraduate), Central Michigan University (master’s)

Hometown: Cincinnati Education: University of Cincinnati (undergraduate) What has been the toughest challenge for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic? People are what make Fifth Third Bank strong

Hometown: Columbus, Ohio Education: Miami University (undergraduate), Ohio State University (MBA)

and I’m energized by being with our team, so not seeing everyone was hard. How are your employees feeling as they and your business emerge from the pandemic? Banks have been a beacon of hope and support for communities during the pandemic. We’re focused on the future and ensuring our region continues to grow and thrive.

Jim Hagerty

Andrew Hawking

Andrew Howell

CEO Bartlett Wealth Management

REGIONAL PRESIDENT Truist

PRESIDENT AND CEO Federal Home Loan Bank

Hagerty and President Holly Mazzocca took on new roles this year as former leader Kelley Downing became Executive Chair of the ﬁrm that’s almost doubled its assets under management to $7 billion in the last ﬁve years. Hagerty leads the management committee and is responsible for strategy, while Mazzocca leads daily operations and the company’s managing directors.

Hawking, who’s led the regional operation of BB&T since 2015, remains in charge as the merger with Sun Trust formed Truist in late 2019 to become the 10th largest bank in the U.S. It has more than $1.5 billion in local deposits and 21 locations. Those offices and Northern Kentucky University’s arena, which the bank has naming rights, are still operating under BB&T signage.

Howell, who joined the bank in 1989, has led the regional wholesale operation that provides ﬁnancial services to more than 650 member stockholders in Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee since 2012. The Federal Home Loan Bank system was created by Congress in 1932 to support ﬁnancing for local housing; the downtown-based facility is one of 11 in the U.S.

Hometown: Cincinnati Education: University of Dayton (undergraduate) How are your employees feeling as they and your business emerge from the pandemic? Employees

have adapted well throughout the pandemic, maintaining a very high level of professionalism and excellent client service. Has your leadership approach changed because of the pandemic? We’ve embraced ﬂexibility as a longterm change. Bartlett will maintain a hybrid schedule featuring on-site and work-from-home, which will make for happier and more productive colleagues.

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Expertise. Diligence. Leadership. Congratulations, Jim.

Our clients’ well being is your bottom line. We’re grateful for your leadership and friendship. For more than 30 years, you’ve been digging deep to help our clients save for retirement, create a family legacy, meet philanthropic goals, and make a lasting impact on society. Your reliable and trusted counsel goes beyond numbers and statistics to see how ﬁnancial plans manifest in someone’s life.

At Bartlett Wealth Management, our goal is reaching yours. So, what can we help you accomplish? Call us at 513.621.4612 or visit bartlett1898.com to get started.

Let’s talk about your future today.

BANKING & FINANCE

Jason Jackman

Kevin Jones

Arthur Kremer

PRESIDENT Johnson Investment Counsel

REGIONAL PRESIDENT Huntington Bank

PRESIDENT AND CEO Sharefax Credit Union

Jackman is also Chief Investment Officer for the company, which he joined in 1993. The region’s fourth-largest money management company has more than $16 billion in assets and added nine shareholders in 2020, bringing the total to 42 among its more than 140 employees in Ohio and Michigan.

Jones joined Huntington in 2013 as a business development leader before taking over the Southern Ohio-Kentucky Region. The Columbus-based company is the ﬁfth-largest local bank with $4.2 billion in deposits. A ﬁve-year, $20 billion program will provide access to capital, housing and home ownership, and community lending and investment in its markets.

Kremer leads the company founded in 1960 by employees of the Ford Motor plants in Sharonville and Fairfax. The Clermont County-based operation, which has about $435 million in assets, serves more than 32,000 members and 400 companies and organizations. It opened new headquarters and a branch office in Eastgate in April.

Hometown: Howell, New York; Rochester, New Hampshire; Pittsburgh Education: Wittenberg University (undergraduate) What has been the toughest challenge for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic? In the beginning it was the physical separation. Lately it’s setting policy for client and employee safety amid an ever-changing pandemic landscape. How are your employees feeling as they and your business emerge from the pandemic? We’ve longed for normalcy, and I think there is a bit of disappointment that this is going to be a possibly ongoing challenge.

Hometown: Cincinnati Education: Miami University (undergraduate) How are your employees feeling as they and your business emerge from the pandemic? A sense of

cautious optimism. We’ve worked hard to adapt to a new style of work, which means supporting our clients and each other in new ways. There’s still a lot of uncertainty, but we’re prepared to evolve to continue serving clients and our teams as safely as possible.

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Education: Northern Kentucky University (undergraduate), Xavier University (MBA)

BANKING & FINANCE

Michael McCuen

Eric Meilstrup

William Morgan

MARKET PRESIDENT KeyBank

PRESIDENT AND CEO LCNB Bank

MANAGING DIRECTOR J.P.Morgan Asset Management

McCuen has led the Cleveland-based company’s local operations since 2017 and is also the commercial sales leader for Key, which has almost $940 million in deposits in this region. The local headquarters are in Great American Tower, and its downtown branch office moves there in November.

Meilstrup has spent more than 30 years with bank. He was named President in 2018 and became CEO in 2019 when Steve Foster retired. It has almost $810 million in deposits and $1.7 billion in assets. After a decade of acquisitions, LCNB has 33 locations in Greater Cincinnati, Dayton, and Columbus, the Lebanon-based company is looking for new opportunities that ﬁt into its core business plan.

Morgan has worked for 40 years in the ﬁnancial services industry, all but two of them with JP Morgan. He leads the local office’s team of 30 employees that manages almost $35 billion in assets. Morgan is the senior portfolio manager for the high-yield team and is responsible for overseeing loan strategies.

Hometown: Doylestown, Ohio Education: John Carroll University (undergraduate), University of Michigan (MBA) What has been the toughest challenge for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic? Staying connected.

An old saying is “50 percent of leadership is just showing up.” It’s more important than ever to work to stay connected to clients and employees. How are your employees feeling as they and your business emerge from the pandemic? A mix of longing for the pre-COVID days and excited to leverage the new tools we learned to be productive.

Hometown: Dexter, Michigan Education: Bowling Green State University (undergraduate), Xavier University (MBA)

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BANKING & FINANCE

Michael Prescott

Maribeth Rahe

Jon Ramey

REGIONAL PRESIDENT U.S. Bank

PRESIDENT AND CEO Fort Washington Investment Advisors

MARKET HEAD UBS Wealth Management

Prescott has led the local market of the Minneapolis-based bank since 2011. U.S. Bank is No. 1 in local deposits with more than $80 billion, and it employs more than 3,000 people at its 100 locations in Greater Cincinnati. Prescott was formerly regional group president for Huntington Bank and the head of the Ohio Tuition Trust Authority before joining U.S. Bank.

Rahe has led the subsidiary of Western & Southern Financial Group since 2003. Fort Washington celebrated its 30th anniversary last year and manages more than $70 billion in assets for its clients. Rahe was previously President of United States Trust of New York and was featured in Vanity Fair’s “America’s Most Inﬂuential Women: 200 Legends, Leaders, and Trailblazers.”

Ramey leads the company’s operations in Cincinnati, Dayton, and Indiana from its Kenwood office. In April, Allen Zaring IV and Tim Bayer joined USB to create the Families & Foundations Investment Group, and former Merrill Lynch advisor Casey Marsh moved three colleagues to the ﬁrm to form Executive Wealth Partners with UBS advisor Rick Corman.

Hometown: Evanston, Illinois Education: Bowling Green State University (undergraduate), Thunderbird School of Global Management (MBA) How are your employees feeling as they and your business emerge from the pandemic?

Hometown: Crawfordsville, Indiana Education: Wright State University (undergraduate) What has been the toughest challenge for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic? Initially it was equipping and transitioning

Everyone feels unsettled, though that’s different for each of us. While life was far better this summer than last summer, COVID still looms over us. Has your leadership approach changed because of the pandemic? We need to connect more effectively and frequently than ever before, but we’re encouraged by how far we’ve come this past year.

400 staff accustomed to working in an office location to a remote-only environment. Our ﬁrm has adopted a policy that currently allows our employees to choose whether they work remotely or in the office, which has been well-received by our workforce but presents its own unique set of challenges as we’re a client-facing business.

Rick Ross

Mark Ryan

Jay Sigler

CEO Summit Funding Group

OHIO VALLEY MARKET EXECUTIVE Merrill Lynch Wealth Management

CEO Cinfed Credit Union

Summit is an equipment financing and leasing company with a portfolio of more than $4 billion in equipment lease and finance originations. It was founded by Ross, Harry Yeaggy, and Louis Beck (the latter two own Union and Guardian savings banks) in 1993. The firm focuses on the technology, material handling, and construction sectors such as cranes, forklifts, and scissor lifts. It posted $300 million in 2020 revenue.

Ryan has led the local office of the division of the Bank of America subsidiary since 2016. He manages about 270 ﬁnancial advisors, analysts, and investment and client associates at offices in Kenwood, Ft. Mitchell, downtown Cincinnati, and Dayton, Ohio. David Singer, managing partner of the Evelo/Singer/Sullivan Group at Merrill, was named the No. 1 wealth advisor in Ohio by Forbes magazine in March.

Sigler joined the company in 2002 and was named to lead the ﬁrm in 2011. Noreene Morgan was named board chair this year, replacing Leroy Miller, who served for 11 years. Cinfed, founded in 1934, has more than $625 million in assets and more than 38,000 members in Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana. Hometown: Wooster, Ohio Education: Bowling Green State University (undergraduate and MBA) What has been the toughest challenge for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic? Besides the increased number

of unique situations to address due to the pandemic, the toughest challenge has been balancing the needs of our members with the well-being of our employees. Has your leadership approach changed because of the pandemic?

I have worked more collaboratively with members of my team to address all the issues associated with guiding an organization through a pandemic.

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BANKING TK SE& C TION FINANCE

Daniel Sutton

Mary Svitkovich

David Wallace

PRESIDENT AND CEO Kemba Credit Union

GENERAL MANAGER / REGIONAL CO-LEADER Fidelity Investments

CEO Heritage Bank

Sutton, the former Chief Operating Officer, has led the company since 2018. It traces its roots to 1934, when employees organized the Kroger Employees Mutual Beneﬁt Association. The company has added realty, insurance, and consumer resources services over the years as it’s grown to more than $1 billion in assets, serving more than 100,000 members from 10 branch offices.

Svitkovich was named a Senior Vice President in 2020 and has worked for the Boston-based ﬁnancial services giant for 26 years. It has more than 2,200 brokers and almost 4,700 employees in this region providing investment management, retirement planning, portfolio guidance, brokerage, and beneﬁts outsourcing. In August, it announced that it would add more than 930 new jobs before the end of the year.

Wallace replaced Chris Caddell, who died suddenly in April 2020, at the Erlanger-based regional bank that was founded by Arthur Caddell in 1990. In 2019, it signed a 10-year deal for the naming rights to the former U.S. Bank Arena, now Heritage Bank Center, downtown. It has $1 billion in local deposits and 17 locations in Kentucky and two in Ohio (Mason and Montgomery).

Hometown: Indianapolis Education: Mount St. Joseph University (undergraduate and master’s) How are your employees feeling as they and your business emerge from the pandemic? I believe they’re optimistic we’ve turned

Hometown: Cincinnati Education: Miami University (undergraduate) Has your leadership approach changed because of the pandemic? I’ve been making a focused

the corner and that brighter days are ahead. I imagine that they, like me, are trying to ﬁgure out the new normal. Will things ever go back to what they were pre-pandemic? And will we ever feel 100 percent safe?

effort to connect with associates more frequently since we lost the ability to catch up in the hallways or over coffee. What hasn’t changed is my commitment to our associates knowing the work they do matters every single day.

Hometown: Princeton, Kentucky Education: University of Kentucky (undergraduate), Northern Kentucky University (J.D.) What has been the toughest challenge for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic? We rose to the occasion, demonstrating agility, efficiency, consistency and great customer service to process more PPP loans for businesses based in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky than any other locally owned, independent community bank.

Barbara A. Turner President and Chief Executive Ofﬁcer Ohio National Financial Services

We salute Barbara Turner for being named to the Cincinnati 300. Thank you for your leadership and contributions to our community. One Financial Way | Cincinnati, OH 45242 | 513.794.6100 | ohionational.com T-700979 9-21

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CONSUMER GOODS

Kirk Andreae

Jeff Billingsley

Tom Brennan

PRESIDENT AND CEO Clarke Power Services

GEN ER A L M A N AG E R DHL

CEO School Outﬁtters

Andreae is the third-generation leader of the company that was founded by his grandfather as Clarke GM Diesel in 1964. The organization includes Clarke Fire Protection Products, Clarke Power Generation, VEHICARE, and Clarke Heavy Duty and has more than 800 employees, 180 mobile service units, 23 retail locations, two manufacturing plants, and an asset management call center to serve clients in more than 150 countries. It posted $290 million in revenue in 2020.

Billingsley has worked for the global cargo carrier for more than 20 years and replaced Joanie Arias as GM in 2019. The largest package carrier in the world has expanded its operations at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport multiple times since moving from Wilmington in 2009. It employs more than 4,400 employees in the region. It raised starting pay to more than $20 per hour this year.

Brennan founded the company that provides furniture, supplies, and support to schools in 1998. The firm helps manage purchasing programs for districts around the country, offering co-op programs and stocking more than 300 products. Chief Operating Officer Betsy Neyer, who has worked for the company since 2004, was promoted to President in 2018. The company posted more than $100 million in revenue in 2020.

Hometown: Florence, Alabama Education: University of South Alabama (undergraduate)

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C ONSUMER G O OD ODS S

Dan Busken

Mike Castrucci

Chris Cicchinelli

PRESIDENT AND CEO Busken Bakery

PRESIDENT Mike Castrucci Automotive

PRESIDENT AND CEO Pure Romance

Busken is the third generation to lead the company founded by his grandfather Joe in 1928. He describes the family operation as one of the city’s iconic food businesses with Skyline and Gold Star chilis, Montgomery Inn ribs, and Graeter’s ice cream. Busken opened a walk-up window at the Hyde Park store in June to offer people walking the Wasson Way trail respite and a doughnut.

Castrucci has been in the business since 1994, operating Ford and Chevrolet dealerships in Milford and Lincoln Mercury in Alexandria. The company is building a Jeep, Dodge, Chrysler, and Ram showroom on the Red Bank Road site of the former Swallen’s store in Fairfax. The dealership sold more than 6,500 vehicles and posted revenue of over $307 million in 2020.

Cicchinelli has led the company founded by his mother Patty Brisben since 2007. It sells intimacy products through independent consultants and has become the world’s largest in-home party company. In June, it announced plans to move its headquarters into a three-building complex across from Great American Ball Park. Pure Romance posted revenue of more than $310 million in 2020.

Hometown: Cincinnati

Hometown: Cincinnati Education: Xavier University

(undergraduate)

Hometown: Milford Education: University of Mount Union (undergraduate) What has been the toughest challenge for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic? Being forced to slow down. Before the pandemic, I was

traveling 250 days a year. Looking back, that slowdown allowed me to reexamine our sales channels and product offerings, which resulted in a company-wide rebrand with an enhanced brand purpose, packaging, and brand extensions in women’s wellness.

Michael Dever

Ken Cohen

Leigh Fox

PRESIDENT Cohen Recycling

CEO Performance Automotive

PRESIDENT AND CEO Cincinnati Bell

Founded in 1924, the family-owned company is one of the largest metal recycling companies in North America, processing over 1.25 million tons annually. It operates more than 20 facilities in Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee and provides customer service around the world. The company employs more than 300 people and posted revenue of almost $370 million in 2020.

Dever has been in the automobile business for more than 45 years. The company has 16 locations in Greater Cincinnati, Dayton, Columbus, and Salt Lake City in addition to several repair shops and a dealership dedicated to motorcycles and ATVs. It’s the third-largest privately owned company in the region, with revenue of more than $1.5 billion on more than 12,000 vehicles sold in 2020.

Fox has led the iconic local company since 2017. Its $2.9 billion acquisition by Macquarie Infrastructure Partners was completed in September. The deal takes the public company, which posted revenue of $1.5 billion in 2020, private for the ﬁrst time since the 1880s. The new ownership will allow Cincinnati Bell to speed the buildout of its next-generation ﬁber network that will deliver faster internet service. It has more than 2,000 employees in the region.

Hometown: Middletown, Ohio Education: University of Pennsylvania (undergraduate)

Hometown: Cincinnati Education: Miami University

(undergraduate), University of Cincinnati (MBA)

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C ONSUMER G O OD ODS S

Adam Greenberg

Brian Habegger

PRESIDENT Topicz

PRESIDENT AND CEO Habegger Corp.

Greenberg is the grandson of Marvin Schwartz, who in 1983 acquired the convenience-store distributor that was founded in 1926. It serves more than 900 customers across Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Tennessee, and West Virginia. The ﬁrm, which operates from a 120,000-squarefoot facility in Amberley Village, posted $430 million in revenue in 2020.

Habegger, grandson of company founder Fred Habegger Sr. and son of Fred Jr., leads the family-owned HVAC company founded in 1952. It’s one of the largest distributors in the U.S. and the largest independent Bryant distributor in North America, with more than 500 employees and 40 locations in eight states. The company posted revenue of more than $380 million in 2020.

Brian Hodgett DIRECTOR , OHIO GOVERNMENT A ND COM M U N I T Y A F FA I R S Procter & Gamble

Hometown: Highland Park, Illinois Education: University of Denver (undergraduate) What has been the toughest

Hodgett is the local investment face of the worldwide consumer products giant that has a long tradition of supporting multiple organizations and efforts in its hometown. He is a visible link to the local community as the Board Chair-Elect and member of the executive committee of the United Way of Greater Cincinnati, as well as serving on the executive committees of REDI and the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber. Hometown: Middleburg Heights, Ohio Education: Ohio State University (undergraduate), Florida State University (master’s)

challenge for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic? Creating a spirit of team unity and collaboration. Has your leadership approach changed because of the pandemic? When I started at Topicz, I had a difficult

time incorporating change. But with the pandemic I’ve found that instilling change is what’s helped our business grow and become even more successful.

Kim Klosterman

Ronald Joseph

Dave Klotter

CEO Joseph Auto Group

CEO Klosterman Baking

CEO TSC Apparel

Joseph is the majority shareholder in the family-owned business, founded as Columbia Oldsmobile in 1938 by his father. He took over in 1966, expanding the company to 16 dealerships in Greater Cincinnati, Dayton, and Columbus. The company sells Acura, Audi, Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, Hyundai, Inﬁniti, Porsche, Subaru, Toyota, and Volkswagen models.

Klosterman has been CEO of the 125-year-old family-owned company since 2008. She and her brother, Chip, run the company that supplies bread to more than 4,000 restaurants, stores, hospitals, and schools in Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana from 11 distribution centers. It posted more than $190 million in 2020 revenue. The Klostermans’ father, Ken, who joined the business in the 1950s and led the company from 1968 until 2009, died in 2020 at age 87.

Klotter has led the wholesale supplier since 2018. It distributes T-shirts, hats, fleece, and other activewear that can be printed for promotional items from seven national distribution facilities, including one in Sharonville. In February, it moved its Southern California center to a 125,000-square-foot building that will increase its inventory by 25 percent. TSC posted revenue of $263 million in 2020.

Hometown: Cincinnati Education: Xavier University

(undergraduate and MBA) Hometown: Cincinnati Education: Stephens College

(undergraduate)

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C ONSUMER G O OD ODS S

Brian Kocher

Brad Lindner

Jeff Lykins

PRESIDENT AND CEO The Castellini Group

CEO United Dairy Farmers

PRESIDENT AND CEO Lykins Energy Solutions

Kocher oversees the Wilder-based consortium, chaired by Reds Owner Bob Castellini, which employs about 850 people in Northern Kentucky. Kocher was COO and interim CEO of Chiquita during his 10-year career with that company. Castellini posted revenue of $1.1 billion in 2020, making it the 10th-largest privately-owned company in Greater Cincinnati.

Lindner is the third-generation leader of the family-owned retail chain that was founded by Carl Lindner Sr. in 1938. It has more than 200 locations and employs about 2,900 people. The company posted revenue of almost $615 million in 2020. This year UDF contributed $1 million to the CROWN (Cincinnati Riding Or Walking Network), the 34-mile urban trail loop being built through the region.

Lykins is the third-generation leader of the family-owned company founded by his grandfather, Guy, in 1948. The Milford-based firm supplies independent service stations with Marathon, BP, Shell, and Gulf fuel products in addition to commercial ﬂeet fueling, petroleum transportation, and residential heating oil and propane sales. It sold its electricity and energy analysis and procurement division to Shipley Energy of Pennsylvania in January.

Education: Ohio University (undergraduate) Hometown: Cincinnati

Keith McCluskey

Tony Maas

Rodney McMullen

CEO JTM Food Group

CEO McCluskey Automotive Group

CHAIRMAN AND CEO Kroger Co.

Maas is the second-generation leader of the family-owned company that started in a Delhi Township butcher shop in 1960. The seven children of Jack and Joann Maas and 15 grandchildren have been involved with the operation that’s evolved into a national company. The pandemic cut into its restaurant and school business last year, so it pivoted to a new line of packaged foods for retail as people ate more meals at home. JTM posted $220 million in revenue in 2020.

McCluskey runs the company founded by his father, Dan, in 1973. The new car showroom is at Kings Automall, with used-car locations in Reading and Groesbeck. McCluskey is the No. 1 volume Chevrolet new car dealer in the world. The company sold more than 8,700 vehicles in 2019, making it the sixth-largest automotive dealer in Greater Cincinnati.

McMullen, who began his career as a parttime stock clerk, was named CEO of the country’s largest traditional supermarket operator in 2014. It increased its quarterly dividend by almost 17 percent in June, the most in nine years. For the 2020 ﬁscal year, Kroger reported earnings of $1.9 billion on more than $130 billion in revenue. It’s the region’s largest company and largest employer with over 18,000 workers. Hometown: Williamstown, Kentucky Education: University of Kentucky (undergraduate and MBA)

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C ONSUMER G O OD ODS S

Kevin McNamara

Adrian Melendez

Vail Miller Jr.

PRESIDENT AND CEO Chemed

DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS Amazon Air

CEO Heidelberg Distributing

Chemed is the parent company of VITAS Healthcare, the nation’s largest hospice organization, and Roto-Rooter, North America’s largest plumbing and drain cleaning provider. McNamara, who has been with company for more than 40 years, became CEO in 2001. It posted more than $2 billion in revenue in 2020 and employs more than 15,500 people through its subsidiaries.

Melendez is Amazon’s top local official at the operation, replacing Chris Bateman. The giant online retailer opened its new $1.5 billion hub at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport in August. The seven-building, 800,000-square-foot complex covers 600 acres. The project will add 2,000 jobs to the existing 4,000 people it employs at CVG. By the end of the year, the hub will handle dozens of ﬂights per day and process millions of packages per week.

Miller is the fourth generation to lead the company, founded in 1938 by Al Vontz, that delivers more than 18,000 brands of beer, wine, spirits, and nonalcoholic beverages to 26,000 retailers in Ohio and Kentucky from nine locations. It partnered with Fretboard Brewing this year to make the Blue Ash-based company’s products available in Kentucky for the ﬁrst time.

Education: University of Louisville (undergraduate)

Hometown: Dayton, Ohio Education: Miami University (undergraduate) What has been the toughest challenge for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic? Staying safe, healthy, and operational, which required

greater and deeper communication, new strategies, and an improved meeting rhythm that leveraged Zoom. Has your leadership approach changed because of the pandemic? I stayed focused on the same core values:

knowledge, excellence, empathy, pride, passion, communication, teamwork, integrity, innovation, and respect.

Daniel Rajczak

Mike Parks

Robert Reichert

CEO Rhinegeist

PRESIDENT AND CEO Totes-Isotoner

CH A I R M A N Kenwood Dealer Group

Parks was hired in August to oversee the brewing operation created by Bob Bonder and Bryant Goulding in 2013. Rhinegeist made 2,000 barrels in its ﬁrst year and now produces more than 100,000 annually and has more than 300 employees with 10 divisions, from events to distribution. Parks is the former CEO of TNT Crust, a frozen pizza crust maker, and also worked at spirits companies Brown-Forman and Diageo.

Rajczak, who was a 17-year veteran of Procter & Gamble, became the top executive at Totes in 2016. The easy-to-carry rubber rain boots were created in Oakley in 1924, and the company introduced the ﬁrst easy-to-fold collapsible umbrella in 1970. It’s the world’s largest manufacturer of weather apparel, with six facilities around the world and revenue of more than $175 million in 2020.

Reichert bought Schenke Lincoln Mercury in 1975 and built it into one of the largest local auto dealerships with 15 locations. He opened Kings Toyota in 1987, the ﬁrst at Kings Auto Mall, and now oversees more than 1,000 employees in sales, service, and repair roles. The company sold more than 23,250 vehicles in 2020, posting revenue of almost $860 million.

Education: University of Kentucky (undergraduate),

Education: University of Waterloo, Canada (undergrad-

Bellarmine University (MBA)

uate)

Hometown: Cincinnati Education: University of Cincinnati

(undergraduate), Southland University (J.D.)

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C ONSUMER G O OD ODS S

William Rumpke Jr.

Jake Rouse

Carl Satterwhite

CEO Braxton Brewing

PRESIDENT AND CEO Rumpke Waste and Recycling

PRESIDENT AND CEO RCF Group

The Rouse family, including brother Evan and father Greg, created the company after experimenting with beer recipes in Evan’s garage. Braxton was early to the hard seltzer growth, introducing Vive in 2019, and within a year it accounted for 30 percent of company sales. Braxton now sells hard seltzer in Texas, where the market is larger than its previous distribution area. Evan Rouse was named to Forbes’ 30 Under 30 Food & Drink inﬂuencers in 2020.

Rumpke, the grandson of founder William Rumpke, replaced his father as CEO at one of the largest privately-owned waste and recycling ﬁrms in the country in 2014. It bought Central Kentucky Fiber Resources of Lexington in January, then bought more than 460 acres in Whitewater Township to expand its existing landﬁll. Rumpke posted revenue of $735 million in 2020.

Satterwhite and Scott Robertson, owner of Globe Business Interiors, formed RCF in 2003 to provide workplace solutions for office furniture, architectural services, and facilities maintenance. Satterwhite created the Black Leadership Forum in 2018 as a support system for African Americans relocating to the area by creating a sense of belonging and improve their chances of success.

Hometown: Union, Kentucky Education: Indiana University (undergraduate)

Todd Schneider

Hometown: Cincinnati Education: Miami University (undergraduate) What has been the toughest challenge for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic?

The uncertainty and health risks associated with COVID presented tough decisions. The initial and long-lasting impacts of the virus on the waste and recycling industry are still being felt today, such as increased waste at the curb, supply chain issues, increasing costs, and increased labor demand. A big challenge, of course, has been keeping our team connected, despite working remotely.

Robert Slattery

Tom Sedler

CEO Cintas Corporation

CEO Home City Ice

CEO Slatts Group

Schneider, who has worked at the company since 1989, replaced Scott Farmer in June. Farmer had led the ﬁrm since 2003, helping double its size from revenue of $2.7 billion to more than $7 billion in 2020, and he’ll remain Executive Chairman. The Mason-based uniform and workplace supply giant employs more than 42,000 people. Farmer’s father, Richard, who took control of the business in 1959, died at 86 in August.

Sedler is the latest family member to run the company founded in Riverside in the 1890s and bought by the family in 1924. It is one of the three largest packaged ice manufacturers in the country, operating plants and distribution centers from New York to Arkansas that produce more than 7,000 tons of ice per day. The company posted revenue of $200 million in 2020 and employs about 1,400 people.

Slattery’s entrepreneurial zeal encompasses a number of ﬁelds. He bought the local Valpak advertising franchise in 1978, then founded and sold Reach magazine and launched Housetrends. He founded Perimeter Technologies, the maker of PetStop, an electronic fencing system. On the hospitality front, he opened Slatts Pub in Blue Ash, 50 West Brewing in Cincinnati and Chillicothe, and the Robert James Distillery in Norwood. Hometown: Cleveland Education: Miami University (undergraduate and master’s) How are your employees feeling as they and your business emerge from the pandemic? I can’t thank them enough for helping our

various business entities survive and often thrive during the pandemic. This changing world hopefully creates an atmosphere where people are more empathetic toward one another.

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C ONSUMER G O OD ODS S

Amy Spiller

Michael Stagnaro

Mike Stuart

PRESIDENT, OHIO AND KENTUCKY REGION Duke Energy

PRESIDENT AND CEO Stagnaro Distributing

DIRECTOR OF PEOPLE STRATEGY MadTree Brewing

Spiller, who has worked for the company and its predecessors for more than 15 years, has led the local operation since 2018. The North Carolina-based provider serves about 860,000 electric customers and almost 540,000 natural gas consumers. Duke teamed with the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber to provide multiple $5,000 grants to minority, women, and veteran-owned small business this year. Spiller received the YWCA Career Women of Achievement award in 2021.

Stagnaro and his brother, Chris, who is Vice President, manage the business that their father, Arthur, started in 1975. It annually distributes more than 7 million cases of beverages from breweries and other manufacturers to about 3,500 retail locations in Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana from facilities in Cincinnati and Erlanger. It posted revenue of $110 million in 2020.

Stuart is responsible for human resources at the company, founded in 2013 by Brady Duncan and Kenny McNutt. After moving to Oakley in 2017, MadTree is the second-largest local craft brewery with more than 25,000 barrels sold in 2020. The company plans to open The Alcove on Vine Street in Over-the-Rhine on the site of the former Kaze restaurant that will feature a large outdoor courtyard. Hometown: Cincinnati Education: University of Cincinnati

(undergraduate) Hometown: Gaylord, Michigan Education: Albion College

(undergraduate), Wake Forest University (J.D.)

Craig Sumerel

Jacob Sweeney

David Taylor

PRESIDENT AAA Bob Sumerel

CEO Jake Sweeney Automotive

PRESIDENT AND CEO Procter & Gamble

The son of the tire store founder leads the auto care and car wash operations for the parent company created when Bob Sumerel Tire and AAA merged more than 10 years ago. The Sumerel name is still attached to the more than 30 tire store and car care locations in the Tristate. The AAA Allied Group has more than 85 locations in 13 states under three names: AAA Car Care, AAA Tire and Auto, and AAA Bob Sumerel.

The Sweeney family has been in the automobile business for more than 100 years. It opened a Jeep-only dealership in Springdale in July, spending more than $7 million to convert its former Mazda showroom to a 25,000-square-foot stand-alone operation. The group sells new and used cars at 12 locations. Sweeney sold almost 10,700 vehicles and posted revenue of more than $460 million in 2020.

Taylor, who became CEO in 2015, announced in July that he will step down in November and be replaced by Chief Operating Officer Jon Moeller. Taylor will remain Executive Chairman. Moeller joined P&G in 1988, was named Chief Financial Officer in 2009, Vice Chairman in 2017, and COO in 2019. When Taylor took over, P&G stock was near $76 per share and valued at $207.8 billion; in August, stock was trading at $142 and the market capitalization was $348.2 billion.

Education: Miami University (undergraduate)

Hometown: Charlotte, North Carolina Education: Duke University (undergraduate)

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C ONSUMER G O OD ODS S

Jay Woffington

Chip Wood

Jeff Wyler

CEO Cincinnati Beverage Company

CHAIRMAN Tire Discounters

CEO Jeff Wyler Automotive Family

Woffington acquired the Hudepohl-Schoenling Brewing Co. from Greg Hardman, who had brought back the local beer brands Christian Moerlein, Hudepohl, Burger, and Little Kings here in 2004. Woffington, his wife Jodi, and Michael Graham led the company through a reorganization that closed its production facility and contracted with other local brewers.

Wood started the company as a onebay shop in 1976. It has 140 stores in six states, employs more than 1,500 people, and posted revenue of $300 million in 2020. In March, it moved into its renovated six-story, 33,000-square-foot headquarters at Fourth and Plum streets downtown that consolidated its business operations in one location. The company opened its largest location, a 10,800-square-foot, 12-bay store in Eastgate in May.

Wyler began his empire in 1973 with a Chevrolet dealership in Clermont County. The dealership sold 180 cars that ﬁrst year. In 2020, the company sold more than 18,000 vehicles with $1.4 billion in revenue. It is one of the top 50 dealerships in the U.S. with locations in Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana. The University of Cincinnati graduate was named the recipient of the school’s William Howard Taft Medal for Notable Achievement this year.

Hometown: Pittsburgh Education: Duke University (undergraduate), Northwestern University (MBA) What has been the toughest challenge for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic? Given that our business

was in distress before the pandemic, we had to make the difficult decision to pivot our production model to contract brewing. This meant laying off our entire brewery staff and closing down our production facility.

9155 Governors Way Cincinnati, Ohio 45249 | 513.583.0900

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CULTURE & LEISURE

Scott Altman

Jeff Berding

Ric Booth

PRESIDENT AND CEO Cincinnati Ballet

PRESIDENT AND GENERAL MANAGER FC Cincinnati

G E NE R A L M A NAG E R Duke Energy Convention Center

Altman, who joined the company in 2016 from Ballet West in Salt Lake City, oversaw the fundraising, design, and construction for the Margaret and Michael Valentine Center for Dance near Eden Park that opened in September. The space features nine studios, recording booth, catering kitchen, and lounge for the dancers. Artistic Director Victoria Morgan, who has transformed the company on stage and off in her 25-year tenure, will retire after the 2021–22 season.

Berding is the public face of the professional soccer team that opened privately-financed TQL Stadium this past spring in the West End. The franchise has cultivated an engaged fan base that’s flocked to games since joining Major League Soccer in 2019.

Booth has led operations at the region’s largest meeting venue since 2006. It hosts an array of events that include conventions, trade shows, charity benefits, and fundraisers in a space occupying three city blocks, with three exhibition halls, 750,000 square feet of event space, and 30 deluxe meeting rooms.

Hometown: New York City Education: UNY Purchase

(undergraduate), Manhattan School of Music (master’s)

Hometown: Cincinnati Education: Miami University (undergraduate), Xavier University (MBA) What has been the toughest challenge for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic? Keeping the staff team together

and the stadium project on track, running the business with no revenue, and so much more. Has your leadership approach changed because of the pandemic? It’s been consistent but improved in terms of sensitivity to feelings of staff, more health conscientious, greater support for ﬂexible work environment, and regular communication/ meetings with all staff.

Hometown: Phoenix Education: Northeastern State University (undergraduate) What has been the toughest challenge for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic? Staying focused on being positive and not

getting frustrated with all the stops, starts and in general bad, negative, and false information circulating at every turn. We’ll be remembered for the way we responded to this time. Staying true to our fellow team members and being good partners to all of our stakeholders and clients in the long run will be what counts in the future.

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CULTURE & LEISURE

Mike Brown

Iris Simpson Bush

Julie Calvert

PRESIDENT Cincinnati Bengals

PRESIDENT AND CEO Flying Pig Marathon

PRESIDENT AND CEO Cincinnati USA Convention & Visitors Bureau

Brown has led the NFL team since the 1991 death of his father, Paul, the legendary Hall of Fame member who founded the club in 1968. He remains the face of the franchise as the fourth generation of the family joins team operations. The Bengals introduced its Ring of Honor this year with quarterback Ken Anderson, tackle Anthony Munoz, and cornerback Ken Riley joining Paul Brown in the inaugural class.

The pandemic forced postponement of the city’s signature running event in 2020, but it returns October 29-31 with nine races, including the Queen Bee Half-Marathon, plus related festivities. Bush has led the organization overseeing the race since 2003. Parent organization Cincinnati Marathon changed its name to Pig Works in 2020 to reﬂect itsg rowth.

Calvert leads the organization that helps maximize the region’s travel, tourism, and convention industries. She worked as Vice President of Communications and Strategic Development from 2001-16 before returning in 2018. During the pandemic, Calvert chaired the Ohio Governor’s Statewide Task Force on Travel and Tourism to craft safe reopening strategies and protocols for the industry. Hamilton County earmarked $2 million of its COVID relief money to help local tourism.

Hometown: Massillon, Ohio Education: Dartmouth College

(undergraduate), Harvard University (J.D.)

Hometown: Cincinnati Education: University of Cincinnati (undergraduate) What has been the toughest challenge for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic? Because of government orders, we had to cancel our

May 2020 event with less than two months’ notice and switch to virtual. My toughest challenge has been keeping our participants engaged and informed. Has your leadership approach changed because of the pandemic? The reason our staff has been able to weather the pandemic is we have the right people in the right positions.

Bob Castellini

Hometown: Cincinnati Education: Miami University

(undergraduate)

Jon Coleman

Roger David

CEO Cincinnati Reds

GE NE RAL MANAGER Westin Hotel

PRESIDENT AND CEO GSR Brands

Castellini, who remains chairman of his family’s Castellini Group food company, led a group that acquired control of the franchise in 2006. The club made the playoffs for the ﬁrst time since 2013 in last year’s pandemic-shortened season, losing to Atlanta. President of Baseball Operations Dick Williams resigned after the season and was replaced by General Manager Nick Krall, who has been with the Reds for 19 years.

Coleman, a veteran of more than 20 years in the hospitality industry, has led the high-proﬁle downtown hotel since 2016. It has more than 450 guest rooms and 30,000 square feet of event space, including the Fountain Square Suite with ﬂoor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the city’s prime gathering spot. The Westin features Ingredients restaurant in its lobby and McCormick & Schmick’s on the corner of Vine and Fifth streets.

David’s father was one of four brothers who founded the Gold Star restaurant chain in Mt. Washington in 1965. GSR Brands was created to oversee the chili parlors and Tom & Chee, the tomato soup/grilled cheese restaurants it acquired in 2017. Four years after acquiring the brand, GSR has plans to resume its expansion plans. It opened a new location in Oklahoma City in the spring and has more than 70 new franchises in the pipeline.

Hometown: Cincinnati Education: Georgetown University

(undergraduate), University of Pennsylvania (MBA)

Hometown: Cincinnati Education: University of Cincinnati

(undergraduate), Xavier University (MBA)

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CULTURE & LEISURE

Jean-Robert de Cavel

Andrew DeWitt

James Downton

CHEF AND OWNER JR Group

EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN Dewey’s

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Sharonville Convention Center

The native of France came to Cincinnati in 1993 as Chef de Cuisine at the ﬁve-star Maisonette and has nurtured a generation of chefs and entrepreneurs in the region. He oversees the French Crust Café & Bistro near Findlay Market and Le Bar a Boeuf in Walnut Hills. His downtown restaurants, Restaurant L and Jean-Robert’s Table, closed in 2020, while Frenchie Fresh Burger Bar in the Deerﬁeld Towne Center is temporarily closed.

DeWitt discovered a love for the art of pizza-making in Seattle in the mid-1990s, then returned to his hometown and opened the ﬁrst Dewey’s restaurant in Oakley in 1998. Dewey’s was one of the last original tenants at Newport on the Levee when the complex was renovated in 2020 but hopes to return with a new design. President Chuck Lipp was promoted from Chief Operations Officer in 2019 to run day-to-day operations of the company’s 25 locations.

Downton has led the suburban facility owned by the city of Sharonville since 2012. It’s the centerpiece of the Northern Lights District along Chester Road near the I-75 and I-275 interchange. Last year, he began a $16.5 million expansion that will double its exhibition space to 40,000 square feet. New neighbors include Third Eye Brewing Company, Tru by Hilton Hotel, and Delta Hotel by Marriott.

Hometown: Lille, France

Hometown: Cincinnati Education: Denison University

Hometown: Ft. Mitchell Education: Northern Kentucky University (undergraduate)

(undergraduate)

Richard Eiswerth

George Goldhoff

David Falk

PRESIDENT, GENERAL MANAGER , AND CEO Cincinnati Public Radio

CHEF AND OWNER Boca Restaurant Group

PRESIDENT Hard Rock Casino

Eiswerth has led the nonproﬁt radio group that operates classical music WGUC (90.9 FM), NPR affiliate WVXU (91.7 FM), and Miami University-affiliated WMUB (88.5 FM) since 1998. WVXU changed its program schedule in August, eliminating music shows to focus more on news, narrative, and storytelling formats.

The Culinary Institute of America graduate opened Boca in 2001 when he was 26. He moved it to the former Maisonette location on Sixth Street between his Sotto, an Italian trattoria, and Nada, the Mexican eatery next to the Aronoff Center. He quickly pivoted during the pandemic to create Domo (Latin for “home”) to deliver ready-to-bake, restaurant-quality meals to customers with 15 miles of downtown Cincinnati.

Goldhoff led the rebranding and renovation of the downtown gambling complex from Jack Casino to its pandemic-delayed reopening last year and the debut of Hard Rock Café this year. In addition, a hotel and sports betting site (if Ohio passes a new law, as expected) are on the agenda. Revenue was up sharply early this year, and the venue offered bonuses to lure workers.

Hometown: Williamsport, Pennsylvania Education: Syracuse University (undergraduate) How are your employees feeling as they and your business emerge from the pandemic? Hopeful and eager to get outside our

studios to connect with our audiences, both current and future. Has your leadership approach changed because of the pandemic? We’ve attempted to be even more open and inclusive regarding our rationale for business decisions and actively solicit employee participation, comment, and assistance in our diversity and outreach efforts.

Hometown: Cincinnati Education: Culinary Institute of

America

Hometown: Saratoga, New York Education: University of Massachusetts–Amherst (undergraduate), Columbia University (MBA) How are your employees feeling as they and your business emerge from the pandemic? Hard Rock is founded on four universal values: Love All, Serve All; Take Time to Be Kind; Save the Planet; and All Is One. The rock stars who stayed with us through the tough time, and those we’ve recruited, are eager to work and make a difference in our community.

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CULTURE & LEISURE

Richard Graeter

Colleen Houston

Ray Harris

PRESIDENT AND CEO Graeter’s Ice Cream

C H I EF O PER ATI NG OF F I CE R Nederlander/Heritage Bank Center

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR AND CEO ArtWorks

Graeter is the fourth-generation family member leading the company that’s made and sold ice cream, candies, and baked goods since 1870. The pandemic stopped plans for a big 150th anniversary celebration, but the company weathered the loss of in-store customers with increased online and supermarket sales. It spent $4 million for an expansion at its Bond Hill manufacturing facility and planned two new retail locations.

Nederlander Entertainment and Anschutz Entertainment Group own and operate the facility, which changed its name in 2019. It’s home to the ECHL Cincinnati Cyclones, who will play this fall for the ﬁrst time since March 2020; that’s when new coach Jason Payne will become the ﬁrst Black head coach of a professional hockey team. Upcoming concert events include the Trans-Siberian Orchestra in December and Roger Waters in August 2022.

Houston, who started as a youth apprentice at age 18 for the public art nonproﬁt, took over for founder Tamara Harkavy in 2020. She led the agency’s move into a new headquarters in Walnut Hills this year and opened a gallery there to focus on work by young artists. ArtWorks employed more than 100 youth artists and teaching artists to work on its 2021 summer program, “Stronger Together,” comprised of 11 public and community art projects.

Hometown: Cincinnati

Hometown: Indian River, Michigan Education: Walsh

Hometown: Cincinnati Education: Warren Wilson College

College (undergraduate)

(undergraduate)

Alecia Kintner

Cameron Kitchin

Mike Koontz

PRESIDENT AND CEO ArtsWave

DIRECTOR Cincinnati Art Museum

VICE PRESIDENT AND GENERAL MANAGER Kings Island

Kintner has led the country’s largest united community arts fund since 2014. She navigated the agency through the pandemic, when arts were one of the first segments to shut down completely and among the last to partially open. ArtsWave offered financial aid to individuals and nonprofits and lobbied government agencies for more money.

Kitchin, who has run the museum operation since 2014, led an ambitious reimagining of the entrance high above Eden Park Drive. CAM celebrated the ﬁrst anniversary of its Art Climb, 165 steps from the street to the parking lot that are lined with sculpture, with more to come.

Koontz became the top executive of the Mason venue in 2016. The largest amusement and water park in the Midwest, KI features 15 roller coasters, including the Orion, a giga coaster that debuted during 2020’s shortened season; 13 family rides; and ﬁve thrill rides. Halloween Haunt and WinterFest are scheduled to return this year after being canceled in 2020.

Hometown: Los Angeles Education: University of Califor-

nia–Riverside (undergraduate), University of Redlands (MBA) What has been the toughest challenge for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic? I’ve literally made hundreds of Zoom presentations, media interviews, and advocacy speeches over the last 18 months without ever really knowing the audience reaction or feeling the energy of the room. You really have to operate with a different kind of personal conviction and faith that your communication is compelling.

Hometown: Norfolk, Virginia Education: Harvard University (undergraduate), William & Mary (MBA) What has been the toughest challenge for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic? When Cincinnati has needed human-

ity and connection more than ever, we’ve worked to bring art and artists forward. As the ﬁrst art museum across Ohio to re-open our front doors, we’re also now an inspiration engine for Cincinnati digitally, on our outdoor grounds, and across neighborhoods. How are your employees feeling as they and your business emerge from the pandemic? We’ve bound together in a uniﬁed cause to protect, care for, and heal our community with the power of art.

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CULTURE & LEISURE

Gretchen Landrum

Michael LaRosa

Joe Lanni

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Northern Kentucky Convention Center

CEO Thunderdome Restaurant Group

CEO LaRosa’s

Landrum has managed the Covington conference venue since 2006. The 200,000 square-foot facility has 110,000 square feet of meeting and display space that can be conﬁgured to client needs and is the second-largest venue in the region behind Cincinnati’s Duke Energy Center. It partnered with Kroger as a mass vaccination site in the early days of COVID vaccine availability.

Lanni and his brother John opened the ﬁrst Currito restaurant in 2005, which began the journey that reunited them with former co-worker Alex Blust in 2011. They opened Bakersﬁeld in Over-the-Rhine in 2012, and Thunderdome was born. In addition to those two operations, the company owns SoHi Grilled Sandwiches, The Eagle, Kruger’s, Maplewood, City Bird, and Pepp & Dolores, the casual Italian eatery that opened in OTR in 2019.

Michael and brother Mark, who is President, are sons of founder Buddy LaRosa and have worked at the family restaurant business for more than 40 years. For ﬁve months last year, LaRosa’s worked with the Council on Aging of Southwest Ohio to prepare more than 11,000 spaghetti dinners in its Boudinot Avenue location that the COA and its partners delivered to seniors who were isolated in apartments throughout the region.

Education: Cornell University (undergraduate)

Hometown: Cincinnati

Steve Loftin

Beryl Love

Matt Lunkenheimer

PRESIDENT Cincinnati Arts Association

EXECUTIVE EDITOR AND MARKET LEADER Enquirer Media

GENERAL MANAGER Hilton Cincinnati Netherland Plaza

Loftin leads the organization that oversees the Aronoff Center for the Arts and Music Hall and that hosts the Broadway Series and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Pops, among other performing arts groups. As the COVID crisis continued, CAA announced that patrons would have to have proof of vaccination or a negative test, plus wear masks for events by resident companies. The Aronoff Center celebrated its 25th anniversary in October 2020.

Love returned to his hometown as the newspaper’s editor in 2017 and was named Market Leader of the Gannett-owned property in January when Eddie Tyner resigned. Love is the public point person for the operation and, prior to his return, was editor of The Reno Gazette-Journal and executive editor of USA Today.

The Cincinnati native returned in 2019 after ﬁve years in Oklahoma City and Nashville to become director of rooms at the Art Deco downtown landmark. This summer he replaced Jason Tyson, who had managed the venue that includes the Orchids at Palm Court restaurant since 2015. The Netherland is the second-largest hotel in the region with more than 560 rooms, trailing only the Belterra Casino Resort, which has more than 600.

Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee

Hometown: Cincinnati Education: University of Cincinnati (Undergraduate) What has been the toughest challenge for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic? In one word, it would be uncertainty. How are your employees feeling as they and your business emerge from the pandemic? Generally speaking, employees are eager

to get back to some sense of normalcy, but no one is exactly sure what that means right now. We’ve all reassessed our goals and priorities over the past 18 months; some employees decided it was time to move on, and others seem more committed to our calling than ever before.

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CULTURE & LEISURE

Kevin McDonnell

Jonathan Martin

Nader Masadeh

PRESIDENT CEO Skyline Chili

PRESIDENT Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra

PRESIDENT AND CEO Buffalo Wings & Rings

McDonnell leads the iconic restaurant chain founded in 1949 by Nicholas Lambrinides and was part of the management team that gained controlling interest in 2010. Tom Williams of North American Properties joined the ownership team in January to help assure that it will remain locally owned. McDonnell and his wife Erica donated ownership shares to the Greater Cincinnati Foundation in 2019 to establish the Skyline Chili Community Fund.

Martin has led the country’s sixth-oldest orchestra since 2017. In June, Music Director Louis Langrée, who arrived in 2013, announced that he will depart after the 202324 season. In August, the CSO hired Harold Brown as its ﬁrst Chief Diversity Officer to assure that diversity, equity, and inclusion principles are part of the decision-making process in each department. CSO musicians also accompany the May Festival, Cincinnati Opera, and Cincinnati Ballet.

Masadeh bought Buffalo Wings & Rings with two partners in 2005 and became CEO in 2014. The company tested new store design changes in its Milford location last year that improved efficiencies in the kitchen, dining room, and online takeout orders. The restaurant has 85 locations worldwide and plans to expand into Mexico, posting almost $125 million in revenue in 2020.

Hometown: Atlanta Education: Georgia State University (undergraduate)

Hometown: Cincinnati Education: University of Cincinnati (undergraduate), Xavier University (MBA) How are your employees feeling as they and your business emerge from the pandemic? The COVID challenges expedited where

Buffalo Rings & Rings was already headed. We shifted to off-premise and delivery services and added new technologies, none of which would have been possible without our incredible network of franchisees, support staff and team, and vendor partners.

Thane Maynard

D. Lynn Meyers

Britney Ruby Miller

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden

PRODUCING ARTISTIC DIRECTOR Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati

CEO Ruby Culinary

Maynard, who has worked at the zoo since 1977, became the top executive in 2007. The venue is in the midst of its “More Home to Roam” capital campaign that includes the Roo Valley and African Penguin Point areas that opened in 2020. It broke ground in June on its largest-ever habitat, Elephant Trek, a $50 million project scheduled for completion in 2024 to create a new home for a multi-generational herd of Asian elephants.

Meyers, who has led the Over-the-Rhine troupe since 1996, won the Governor’s Award for Excellence in Arts Education in 2019. In April, ETC presented a digital version of I Shall Not Be Moved, the story of local playwright Isaiah Reaves’ grandmother during her days with the Freedom Riders of the 1960s.

Miller, Jeff Ruby’s oldest child, moved into the company’s top spot in 2020. She worked in the restaurants as a teenager and joined the corporate office in 2011. In the past decade, the company has grown from four to seven restaurants and will move its main downtown location to the Foundry across from Fountain Square. Miller is joined in the executive suite by brothers Brandon, Executive Vice President, and Dillon, the Talent Director.

Hometown: Winter Park, Florida Education: Rollins College (undergraduate), University of Michigan (master’s)

Hometown: Cincinnati Education: Thomas More University (undergraduate) How are your employees feeling as they and your business emerge from the pandemic? Guardedly optimistic. We’re worried about the

COVID variant and yet realize we must open to survive, so we’re being very careful about precautions and taking care of everyone here to the best of our ability. Has your leadership approach changed because of the pandemic?

I have had to realize there are things out of my control no matter how hard I try. I also came to realize that we have a long way to go to heal.

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Hometown: Cincinnati Education: University of Cincinnati (undergraduate) Has your leadership approach changed because of the pandemic? The pandemic challenged us

all to become better versions of ourselves personally and professionally. While our leadership approach does look much different today, we didn’t set out to change it intentionally. We became better communicators, especially with our legislators and regulatory agencies.

CULTURE & LEISURE

Christopher Milligan

Jeff Osterfeld

Bimal Patel

GENERAL DIRECTOR AND CEO Cincinnati Opera

CEO Penn Station

CEO Rolling Hills Hospitality

Milligan took over leadership in 2020 just before the Opera’s 100th anniversary season was canceled by the pandemic. He produced a documentary with CET public television, Cincinnati Opera at 100, with his predecessor, Patricia Beggs. Milligan and Artistic Director Evan Mirageas returned to the company’s roots at the Cincinnati Zoo with an outdoor season of three classic productions in Blue Ash.

Osterfeld opened the ﬁrst Penn Station restaurant in downtown Cincinnati in 1985 after being inspired by the Bagel & Deli Shop in Oxford while in college at Miami. His company posted revenue of more than $210 million in 2020. In 2004, Osterfeld designed and built the Golf Club at Stonelick Hills in Batavia.

Patel founded the company in 2005 to build, renovate, and manage hotels, extended-stay models, and the food and beverage operations in them. It has 14 locations in Ohio and Kentucky, including the Holiday Inn & Suites in downtown Cincinnati. He served on the Restart Task Force formed by the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber and Cincinnati Business Committee.

Hometown: Kettering, Ohio Education: Miami University (undergraduate) What has been the toughest challenge for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic? Keeping our singers and stage professionals safe.

Under normal conditions, producing opera is exquisitely complex, requiring highly trained specialists from across the country. Producing during a pandemic this summer was an extraordinary and unprecedented undertaking, demanding the best from every company member.

Brian Isaac Phillips

Hometown: Cincinnati Education: Miami University (undergraduate) What has been the toughest challenge for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic?

Our difficulties are mostly at the restaurant level, with constant disruptions in the supplier network and staffing difficulties that are worse than anything I’ve experienced in 38 years. How are your employees feeling as they and your business emerge from the pandemic? Some have voiced frustration from covering for employees who are at home, which makes their shift that much more stressful.

Elizabeth Pierce

Hometown: Williamstown, Kentucky Education: Transylvania University (undergraduate) What has been the toughest challenge for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic? The hotel industry was completely decimated,

because it’s extremely difficult to operate hotels at low levels of occupancy. How are your employees feeling as they and your business emerge from the pandemic? It’s been tough to recruit and keep people working in our industry. There are still 5 million fewer workers in the service industry than in February 2020.

Joe Pinto

PRODUCING ARTISTIC DIRECTOR Cincinnati Shakespeare Company

PRESIDENT AND CEO Cincinnati Museum Center

G E N E R A L M A N AG E R Hyatt Regency Cincinnati

Phillips, who has been the creative leader since 2003, was instrumental in CSC’s creation of the Otto M. Budig Theater in Over-the-Rhine in 2017. With the company shuttered during the pandemic, Phillips found innovative ways for the troupe to perform, including events at Boone Woods Park in Burlington, Municipal Brew Works in Hamilton, and more than 40 productions in the Shakespeare in the Park Tour during the summer.

Pierce led the 2014 campaign for a $228 million renovation of the iconic venue. In 2017, the center began a project to reimagine the space with nine new exhibits, updates to favorites, and state-of-the-art labs. This year the “Champion More Curiosity” fundraising effort to support programming entered the public phase with a goal of $18 million, and the Children’s Museum reopened.

Pinto, who has more than 35 years of experience in the hospitality business, moved from Indianapolis in 2018 to lead the venue across the street from the Duke Energy Center. The pandemic ravaged the hotel business, causing steep revenue losses and forcing him to lay off more than 70 employees. Pinto was elected to the board of the Cincinnati USA Convention and Visitors Bureau this year.

Hometown: Mansﬁeld, Ohio Education: Miami UniverHometown: Pittsburgh Education: Morehead State University (undergraduate) What has been the toughest challenge for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic? The ongoing challenge to create new ways

sity (undergraduate), George Washington University (master’s)

to deliver our mission of bringing Shakespeare and the classics to life for all without our main stage programming and keeping spirits up on the days when it feels like the pandemic will never end.

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C ULTURE & LEISURE

Blake Robison

Rob Schutter

Mike Smith

P RODUCING ARTISTIC D IREC TO R Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park

PR ESI D EN T Coney Island

C EO Music and Event Management, Inc.

Robison has driven the organization’s commitment to new and diverse programming since 2012, and he oversees the almost $50 million construction of the Mainstage Theatre Complex featuring the Rouse Theatre, scheduled to be completed in 2022. Buzz Ward, who retired as Managing Director after 29 years, was replaced by Abby Marcus.

Schutter changed the face of the venerable Anderson Township destination by shutting down rides to focus on the water park. The improvements include the 16,000-square-foot Typhoon Tower, a new bath house, bar, and entrance to Sunlite Pool, which will mark its 100th anniversary in 2025. This year’s additions include Challenge Zone, which features the largest Aquaglide obstacle course in the U.S.

MEMI is owned by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, which also owns Riverbend Music Center, PNC Pavilion, and the new Andrew J Brady ICON Music Center on The Banks, which featured the Foo Fighters in its first outdoor concert in July. In addition to managing those venues, Smith oversees booking for the Taft Theatre, the Longworth-Anderson Series at Memorial Hall, and the Rose Music Center near Dayton.

Hometown: Middlebury, Vermont Education: Williams College (undergraduate), University of North Carolina (master’s) What has been the toughest challenge for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic? I’ve run theaters through 9/11, through the 2008 financial crisis, through natural disasters, and the dominance of online entertainment, but this takes the cake. The toughest challenge has been trying to plan for the unpredictable.

Hometown: Cincinnati Education: University of Cincinnati (undergraduate) Has your leadership approach changed because of the pandemic? Our entire leadership team

committed last year to become more engaging with our seasonal crew members. It’s important to us to become more flexible with working shifts and provide as many intangible benefits as possible.

New exhibits. New discoveries. Help us build the future.

Champion More Curiosity Donate today at supportcmc.org

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CULTURE & LEISURE

Adam Symson

Tony Vasconcellos

William Yung

PRESIDENT AND CEO E.W. Scripps Co.

PRESIDENT AND CEO Columbia Sussex

Symson has led the media company that owns WCPO since 2017. It completed its largest acquisition in January with the purchase of Ion Media Networks from Black Diamond Capital Management, adding Ion to the company’s Katz Networks, Newsy channel, and Sling and Fubo services to reach almost every American household.

Yung founded the Crestview Hills-based company in 1972 with one hotel and has expanded it to more than 40, while operating a number of full-service resorts throughout the country. Locally, the company runs the Renaissance Hotel in downtown Cincinnati and Marriott brand motels in Mason, West Chester, and Hebron. It reported 2020 revenue of almost $920 million.

Hometown: Los Angeles Education: University of California–Los Angeles (undergraduate) What has been the

Vasconcellos replaced Jason Vaughan, who in 2015 became the first leader of the iconic restaurant company after NRD Capital acquired it from the Maier family. Vasconcellos, who is also Chief Financial Officer, was the principal for Vasco Consulting and previously served as CFO for local companies Family RV Group and the Hillman Group. Frisch’s reported revenue of almost $238 million in 2020, down more than $10 million from 2019.

toughest challenge for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic? Thanks to the ﬂexibility, creativity,

Education: Miami University (undergraduate)

and ingenuity of our employees, our business operated effectively and efficiently in various phases of remote work. So much so that during the height of the pandemic we took advantage of some of the marketplace uncertainty to make signiﬁcant moves to transform our company.

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Focused on reducing the global Afib epidemic.

We work to heal the lives of Patients, empower our People, and collaborate with our Partners to reduce the burden of Afib worldwide. At AtriCure patients are at the heart of what we do every day. Each and every AtriCure team member knows that regardless of their position, they are positively impacting patients’ lives. Our teams are comprised of talented and passionate people who embrace our mission of reducing the global Afib epidemic. Our influence is worldwide, including offices in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. www.AtriCure.com

EDUCATION & HEALTH

Tianay Amat

Clyde Bell

Michael Carrel

IN TERIM SUPERINTEND EN T Cincinnati Public Schools

CEO CEI Vision Partners

PRESIDENT AND CEO AtriCure

Amat was named to the job after Laura Mitchell resigned in May to become President and CEO of Beech Acres Parenting Center. Amat had been Deputy Superintendent and now leads the largest public-school system in Southwest Ohio, overseeing almost 36,000 students at 66 schools. She was previously principal at Hyde Park School, taught at Rockdale Academy, and held administrative positions in the Lakota and Princeton districts.

Bell became the top executive of the Blue Ash-based Cincinnati Eye Institute in 2005 and launched CEI Vision Partners (CVP), an initiative with Revelstoke Capital Partners of Denver, in 2018. CVP has almost 1,500 employees among its eight practice partners in Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, and Virginia, while CEI has more than 80 doctors at 16 locations in Greater Cincinnati. CVP posted revenue of almost $280 million in 2020.

Carrel has led the Mason-based medical device company that provides solutions for Atrial Fibrillation (Afib) since 2012 and has focused on innovation, clinical science, and education to grow it from 200 employees to more than 650 worldwide. In June, the company acquired a 34,000 square-foot neighboring property, where it will eventually double its product assembly capability. AtriCure posted revenue of more than $205 million in 2020.

Hometown: Brooklyn, N.Y. Education: State University of

New York and University of Cincinnati (master’s)

Education: Middle Tennessee State University (undergraduate)

Education: Penn State University (undergraduate), University of Pennsylvania (MBA)

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EDUCATION & HEALTH

Joseph L. Chillo

Mark Clement

Garren Colvin

PRESIDENT Thomas More University

PRESIDENT AND CEO TriHealth

PRESIDENT AND CEO St. Elizabeth Healthcare

Chillo leads the Catholic institution in Crestview Hills founded 100 years ago by the Benedictine Sisters as Villa Madonna College. He was president of Newbury College in Brookline, Massachusetts, before taking over TMU in 2019. The school has been approved for provisional membership in the NCAA Division II Great Midwest Conference, a step up in competition from its NAIA status. Enrollment is more than 2,200.

Clement leads the healthcare provider that operates five Greater Cincinnati hospitals (Good Samaritan, Bethesda North, TriHealth Evendale, Bethesda Butler, and McCullough-Hyde in Oxford) and has improvement projects planned at Good Samaritan in Clifton ($140 million) and Bethesda North in Montgomery ($85 million). It’s the fourth-largest employer in the region with more than 12,000 employees, including more than 650 doctors and an independent medical staff of 1,800.

Colvin, who began working at St. Elizabeth as a co-op student in 1983, has led Northern Kentucky’s largest healthcare provider since 2015. It is the largest employer in Northern Kentucky with more than 9,700 staff workers and opened its Cancer Center, a $140 million facility in Edgewood, in 2020. Colvin was elected to a two-year term as board chair of the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce in September.

Hometown: Mahopac, New York Education: Binghamton

University (undergraduate), Long Island University (master’s), Northeastern University (DLP) Has your leadership approach changed because of the pandemic? As a servant leader, my responsibility is to ensure that our university, our mission, and our people beneﬁt from the work we all do to provide every student with a strong Catholic liberal arts education.

Hometown: Cincinnati Education: Xavier University

Hometown: Ludlow Education: Thomas More College (undergraduate), Northern Kentucky University (MBA)

(undergraduate and master’s)

Jonathan Cooper

Gregory Crawford

Bill DeVille

S UP E R INTEND ENT Mason City Schools

PRESIDENT Miami University

CEO Health Carousel

Cooper, who has led the district since 2018, came to Mason in 2014 as the Chief Innovation Officer and helped develop the Experiential Learning and Personal Learning Device programs for the district, which has more than 10,200 students. Its average teacher salary of more than $77,000 is one of the highest in the area.

Since 2016, Crawford has led Miami, one of the oldest public universities in the country, chartered in 1809 and opened in 1824. It welcomed its largest incoming class of more than 4,600 students this year. The university received one its five largest gifts in 2020 when Rick McVey (Class of 1981), founder of MarketAxess, a New York financial technology company, donated $20 million to fund construction of the Richard M. McVey Data Science Building.

The co-founder of the Norwood-based staffing company has more than 35 years in the industry. Health Carousel provides services in nurse travel, temporary physicians, international nursing, and allied health staffing. It’s acquired six companies since 2015, including Houston-based Vitruvian, an anesthesia staffing business, and MedPath of Connecticut, a recruitment process outsourcing and locum tenens firm, in the past year. Those acquisitions have totaled nearly $90 million in annual revenue.

Hometown: Upland, Indiana Education: Ball State University (undergraduate), University of Dayton (master’s), Miami University (Ed.D.) What has been the toughest challenge for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic? This is the ﬁrst time in our history that every

Hometown: Elyria, Ohio Education: Kent State University (undergraduate, master’s, and Ph.D.)

single person has experienced some level of trauma. We often discuss the concerns around our physical health, but the mental health of a person is just as important and there will be long term impacts on our communities we’ll need to address together.

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Hometown: Westerville, Ohio Education: Ohio State University (undergraduate and MBA) How are your employees feeling as they and your business emerge from the pandemic? They’re anxious because of the uncertainty

and disruption created by the virus, the variants, and the durability of vaccines. But they are also highly motivated to make a difference in the lives of patients across the U.S.

EDUCATION & HEALTH

Fernando Figueroa

Michael Fisher

Dave Fiske

PRESIDENT Gateway Community & Technical College

PRESIDENT AND CEO Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center

PRESIDENT Mercy Health Cincinnati

Since 2016, Figueroa has led the school that has grown to more than 4,000 students on campuses in Covington, Florence, and Edgewood; almost half also work full-time. The mission of enhancing access to education and training for a relevant curriculum has created an atmosphere for students to learn marketable skills from instructors who have worked in the field.

Fisher, who has led the award-winning healthcare provider since 2010, announced in April that he will retire when his successor is in place. He has overseen construction of the $600 Critical Care Building and in May announced a $99 million expansion of the College Hill campus. He chairs the Children’s Hospitals Solutions for Patient Safety organization, a group of more than 140 international pediatric providers.

Fiske runs Mercy Health’s local operations under John Starcher, who became CEO of the Cincinnati-based healthcare system after its 2018 merger. It operates five Mercy Health hospitals (including Jewish Hospital in Kenwood) in Greater Cincinnati and plans to build a $156 million, 60-bed facility in Mason that will create 275 new jobs.

Hometown: New Orleans Education: Louisiana State

University (undergraduate, master’s, and Ph.D.)

Hometown: Cincinnati Education: Stanford University (undergraduate)

Hometown: La Habra, California Education: Penn State University (undergraduate), DePaul University (MBA) What has been the toughest challenge for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic? In 2020 it was trying

to ensure that we had the resources to take care of our patients. In 2021 it’s having have the staff to take care of our patients. How are your employees feeling as they and your business emerge from the pandemic? From a health care perspective, the pandemic is deﬁnitely not over.

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EDUCATION & HEALTH

Jodi Fronczek

Christopher Garten

Colleen Hanycz

C H IE F O PERATIO NS O FF ICER Dental Care Plus Group

H EA D O F SC H OOL Seven Hills School

PRESIDENT Xavier University

Fronczek replaced Robert Hodgkins to lead the Sharonville location of the dental insurance provider that was founded by a group of dentists in 1986 and was bought by DentaQuest of Boston in 2019. The company offers access to more than 275,000 provider locations for more than 400,000 dental and vision plan members. It has annual revenue of more than $110 million. __ _____________________________________ _____________________________________ _____________________________________

Garten has led the private pre-K through grade 12 school since 2009. More than 1,000 students attend classes at two campuses, Hillsdale on Red Bank Road and Doherty in East Walnut Hills. It has an average class size of 15 pupils with teachers that average 18 years of experience. Graduates in the class of 2021 received an average scholarship award of $36,000. All but one, who is taking a gap year, is attending a fouryear university.

Hanycz replaced Father Michael Graham, who retired in June after 20 years as the Jesuit school’s longest-tenured leader. She is the first woman and layperson to lead the university in its 190-year history. She had been President of La Salle University in Philadelphia, where she was also the first woman and layperson to lead that Catholic institution, since 2015.

Hometown: New York City Education: Princeton University

(undergraduate), Columbia University (master’s)

Hometown: Toronto, Canada Education: University of Toronto

(undergraduate), Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada (J.D.), Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto (Ph.D.) What has been the toughest challenge for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic? Maintaining close proximity

in the midst of an environment where we have needed to be more socially distant. How are your employees feeling as they and your business emerge from the pandemic? Our faculty and staff have done a remarkable job of serving our students, but there’s been a high cost to this level of commitment.

Deborah Hayes

Gail Kist-Kline

Richard Lofgren

PRESIDENT AND CEO The Christ Hospital

PRESIDENT Christ College of Nursing and Health Sciences

PRESIDENT AND CEO UC Health

Hayes, who was named interim leader when Arturo Polizzi departed last year, assumed the healthcare provider’s CEO role in May. Hayes has spent her career of more than 30 years at Christ, beginning as a student nurse aide. She will manage more than 6,000 employees at the organization that’s been ranked No. 1 in Greater Cincinnati for seven straight years by U.S. News & World Report.

Kist-Kline, who was formerly superintendent of Mason and Wyoming city schools, became leader of the college on the Mt. Auburn campus of The Christ Hospital Health Network in 2018. The school, which was founded in 1902, offers degrees in nursing and healthcare administration for more than 900 students.

Lofgren has led the healthcare provider since 2013, overseeing more than 11,000 employees at UC Medical Center, West Chester Hospital, Drake Center, Lindner Center of HOPE, and more than 30 outpatient centers in three states. It opened a clinic at the main campus this year for COVID “long-haulers.”

Hometown: College Corner, Ohio Education: Miami University (undergraduate, master’s, and Ph.D.) What

Hometown: Royal Oak, Michigan Education: University of

Education: Xavier University (undergraduate), Northern

has been the toughest challenge for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic? Providing answers

Kentucky University (master’s)

quickly and with clarity about where we’re headed as an organization. Because we’re in both the healthcare and higher education spaces, we had to pivot in so many aspects to meet our students’ and our community’s needs. Has your leadership approach changed because of the pandemic? I leaned more on empathy, understanding, and giving grace.

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Michigan (undergraduate and medical school), University of Minnesota (master’s) Has your leadership approach changed because of the pandemic? The pandemic was a powerful reminder to me about the important fundamentals of leadership. First, be present even if it means using different and unfamiliar ways to connect, such the various digital modalities. Second, be authentic, transparent, and conﬁdent in your team without providing false reassurance. And ﬁnally teamwork, collaboration, and respecting everyone’s contribution are all essential.

EDUCATION & HEALTH

Alan Martin

Matt Miller

Dean Nicholas

VICE PRESIDENT PHARMACY OPERATIONS Humana

SU PER I N T E N DE N T Lakota Local Schools

H E A D OF S CH OOL Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy

Martin is responsible for mail-order, overthe-counter, retail, engineering, and specialty operations for the Louisville-based company that has call center and distribution facilities in Springdale and West Chester. He oversees those operations in eight states, managing more than 2,000 employees. Humana Pharmacy has received national recognition for excellence in customer service, including a Specialty Pharmacy Patient Choice Award from Zitter Insights.

Miller leads one of Ohio’s largest school districts with more than 15,500 students, 1,000 teachers, and 700 support personnel. He was hired in 2017 and in December signed a new five-year contract. He has emphasized technology in the schools and social media (#WEareLakota) to keep families involved in policy decisions. He hosts a monthly hourlong conversation called In the Loop with the Supe that alternates between in-person and online.

Nicholas replaced the retiring Randy Brunk, who had led the private institution’s Symmes Township campus and downtown location since 2003. Nicholas has worked at the school for 25 years as both Assistant Head of School and Upper School Principal. More than 1,300 students from age 2 through grade 12 represent 140 area churches. CHCA has a robust international program with students from more than 25 countries attending classes.

Hometown: Independence, Ohio Education: Ohio Northern University (undergraduate)

Hometown: Cincinnati Education: University of Cincinnati

Education: Wheaton College (undergraduate and master’s), Hebrew Union College (Ph.D.)

Neville Pinto

(undergraduate and master’s)

Monica Posey

Tim Reilly

PRESIDENT University of Cincinnati

PRESIDENT Cincinnati State Technical & Community College

PRESIDENT St. Xavier High School

Pinto, who took over in 2017, launched Next Lives Here in 2018, a 10-year plan focusing on academic excellence, innovation, and urban impact to celebrate UC’s 200th anniversary in 2019. The public research university has an enrollment of more than 46,000. In August, Valerio Ferme, dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, was named Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs, the administration’s No. 2 officer.

Posey, who has worked at the school for almost 30 years and led it since 2016, was rewarded with a new five-year contract in May. Trustees praised improved graduation rates, strong fiscal position, enhanced relationships with the community, and increased awareness by the public. Almost 12,000 students take classes through campuses in Clifton, Harrison, Evendale, and Middletown.

Reilly, a 1976 graduate, became the first lay leader of the all-male Jesuit school, the largest private high school in the area with more than 1,400 students in grades 9-12. Daniel Lynch, who taught mathematics at the school since 2014, was promoted to principal in July to replace Terry Tyrrell. Founded in 1831, St. X has a student body from 76 Zip codes in Greater Cincinnati with a 20 percent minority enrollment.

Hometown: Philadelphia Education: Cornell University

Hometown: Cincinnati Education: Miami University

(undergraduate), University of Pennsylvania (MBA), University of Cincinnati (Ed.D.)

(undergraduate), Xavier University (master’s)

Hometown: Mumbai, India Education: Indian Institute of

Technology in New Delhi, India (undergraduate), Penn State University (master’s and Ph.D.)

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EDUCATION & HEALTH

August Troendle

Ashish Vaidya

H. James Williams

PRESIDENT AND CEO Medpace Holdings

PRESIDENT Northern Kentucky University

PRESIDENT Mount St. Joseph University

Troendle, founder of the clinical research company, led it to record revenue of more than $925 million in 2020, up from than $860 million in 2019. Jesse Geiger, who joined the company in 2007, was named President, a new position, this year. In August, Medpace announced it would hire 650 people to add to its 4,100 employees in 40 countries. More than 1,800 people work for the company in this region.

Vaidya, who arrived in Highland Heights in 2018, leads the region’s thirdlargest university with more than 14,000 students. He used money from the school’s coronavirus relief funds to eliminate $600,000 in student debt accumulated since spring of 2020 and another $2.4 million to provide supply vouchers for fall semester students and increased mental health support. The school partnered with Cincinnati State for CState2NKU, a new dual admissions pathway.

In 2016, Williams became the leader of the Delhi Township school founded by the Sisters of Charity in 1920 as the first Catholic college for women in southwestern Ohio. Williams is the former president of Fisk University and has worked at a number of schools, including Notre Dame, Georgetown, North Carolina Central, and Delaware State. MSJ hosted President Joe Biden in July for a CNN Town Hall event.

Education: University of Maryland (M.D.)

Hometown: Thousand Oaks, California Education: St. Xavi-

er’s College in Mumbai, India (undergraduate), University of California Davis (Ph.D.)

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Education: North Carolina A&T (undergraduate), University of Wisconsin (MBA), Georgetown University (J.D.), University of Georgia (Ph.D.)

EDUCATION & HEALTH

Rich Wilson

Rob Zimmerman

H EAD O F SCHO O L The Summit Country Day School

H EA D O F S CH OOL Cincinnati Country Day

The former Procter & Gamble executive has led the Hyde Park Catholic school founded in 1890 by the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur since 2010. Wilson has led fundraising efforts that paid for renovation and construction projects, increased the endowment, and championed innovative initiatives for faculty and staff development. He’s announced that he will retire at the end of the 2021-22 school year.

The CCD graduate replaced Tony Jaccaci, who led the K-12 private school in Indian Hill since 2015. Zimmerman was an attorney with Dinsmore & Shohl for 16 years and has been active in school affairs as a member of the board, chairman of the COVID task force, alumni council president, and parent. The school was founded in 1926 and has an enrollment of 870.

Hometown: Towson, Maryland Education: Davidson College

(undergraduate), University of Chicago (MBA) Has your leadership approach changed because of the pandemic? I’ve learned to be more patient and empathetic: patient with those who strongly disagree with the protocols we’ve put in place, and empathetic with those who have lost loved ones and those for whom this virus is a signiﬁcant health threat.

Hometown: Cincinnati Education: Vanderbilt University (undergraduate), University of Cincinnati (J.D.) How are your employees feeling as they and your business emerge from the pandemic? Our faculty and staff are disappoint-

ed that we haven’t fully emerged from the pandemic, but we’re also feeling conﬁdent in our ability to navigate another school year impacted by COVID.

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INTRODUCING

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MANUFACTURING & TECH

Mark Anderson

Scott Anderson

Dean Backscheider

PRESIDENT AND CEO ProMach

PRESIDENT HBH Holdings

PRESIDENT BGR

Anderson has led the Covington-based packaging materials and machinery manufacturer since 2005 and continues the company’s expansion by acquisition. In 2020, ProMach added Florida-based Pharmaworks, Modern Packaging of New York, Michigan-based Fogg Filler, Panther Industries of Colorado, and California-based Statco-DSI Process Systems. In February, it acquired Serpa Packaging Solutions. It posted revenue of more than $950 million in 2020.

Anderson, who was CEO of HBH subsidiary Enerfab, was named President of the parent company in 2020. HBH focuses on fabrication, maintenance, and construction for the heavy industrial and utility markets. Enerfab CEO Aaron Landholt, who succeeded Anderson, led the local affiliate to $340 million in revenue in 2020.

Backscheider and his brother, Allen, manage the packaging supply chain company founded by their father, Al, in 1972 with “12 cases of tape and an understanding that packaging and shipping companies needed a partner.” Today, it occupies more than 300,000 square feet in West Chester, with other facilities in Louisville, Detroit, Indianapolis, and Huntington, West Virginia.

Hometown: North Benton, Ohio Education: University of Cincinnati (undergraduate) What has been the toughest challenge for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic? The need to move quickly in an unchartered

Hometown: Cincinnati Education: University of Cincinnati

(undergraduate), Xavier University (MBA)

environment to keep the business moving forward. I recognized that short-term decisions would have longterm consequences, so our team needed to balance the needs of today with the long-term survival and stability of the company. Has your leadership approach changed because of the pandemic? I’ve learned to be a lot more open-minded about how we get the work done.

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MANUFAC TURING & TE CH

Pete Blackshaw

Adam Browning

Otto Budig Jr.

C EO Cintrifuse

PR ESI D EN T Gold Medal Products

CH A I R M A N Budco Group

Blackshaw leads the organization created in 2012 by the Cincinnati Business Committee and supported by Kroger, Procter & Gamble, Western & Southern, and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center to access cutting-edge technologies by leveraging its venture fund. It connects the local corporate sector with innovators who help keep large companies nimble.

Browning was named President in 2017 to lead the family-owned manufacturer and distributor of concession food equipment and supplies founded by Dave Evans in 1931. The third generation of the Evans family is in management, working alongside the fourth generation. Sales have almost doubled in the past decade as it employs more than 350 people in 16 locations, posting more than $170 million in revenue in 2020.

Budig recently retired from managing the transportation, logistics, and equipment leasing firm his father started as a trucking company in 1949, turning over CEO duties to his own son David. The Otto M. Budig Family Foundation is one of the largest supporters of the arts in the region. His name is on Cincinnati Shakespeare Company’s theater and Cincinnati Ballet’s academy. He is leading the capital campaign for The Carnegie, the historic Covington arts venue, and the fundraising to build a new Clifton Cultural Arts Center.

Hometown: Pasadena, California Education: University of California Santa Cruz (undergraduate), Harvard University (MBA) What has been the toughest challenge for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic? COVID magnified extreme tensions. We’re connected and more divided, greener and more toxic, more innovative and more invasive, and more productive and more displaced. These dilemmas create massive potential for renewal and revitalization if we embrace them as healthy tensions, not intractable problems.

Hometown: Dayton Education: Centre College (undergraduate), University of Cincinnati (MBA), Northern Kentucky University (J.D.) How are your employees feeling as they and your business emerge from the pandemic? We’ve rebounded quickly over the past six months, but it’s presented a new set of challenges, so we’re cautiously optimistic. Has your leadership approach changed because of the pandemic? It’s elevated the necessity for contingency planning, prioritization, and analyzing things in even greater detail.

Doug Cahill

Hometown: Newport Education: University of Cincinnati (undergraduate)

James Clark

Mike Clark

P RES ID ENT AND CEO Hillman Group

PR ESI D EN T A ND CEO LSI Industries

P R ES I DE NT A ND COO Pilot Chemical

Cahill led Hillman’s merger with Houston-based Lancadia Holdings III in June, then took the combined company public in July when it joined the Nasdaq exchange. It is a hardware supplier to top market retailers that include Lowe’s, Home Depot, and Walmart, reporting 2020 revenue of $1.4 billion before the IPO. Max Hillman founded the original fastener company in 1964 to supply hardware stores.

Clark joined the Blue Ash-based industry leader in lighting and graphic solutions for commercial and industrial buildings, petroleum and convenience stores, and retailers in 2018. It bought Maine-based JSI Store Fixtures in May for $90 million. It employs more than 1,400 people in facilities in seven states and posted revenue of more than $305 million in 2020.

Clark became the top executive at the maker of disulfonates for the manufacturing and personal care industries when CEO Pamela Butcher stepped down at the beginning of the year. Pilot was a financial beneficiary of the pandemic as its biocide products that kill viruses increased sales five-fold. It posted 2020 revenue of $311 million. Clark, who joined the company in 2018, oversees more than 400 employees at nine locations.

Hometown: St. Henry, Ohio Education: Bowling Green State University (undergraduate) What has been the toughest challenge for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic? Keeping our people safe while

Education: State University of New York at Albany (undergraduate)

we take great care of our customers. We were deemed essential, so we never shut down, and our retail service team made 98,000 store visits during the second quarter of 2020. They’re absolute warriors, and we’re blessed to have them.

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Hometown: Hamilton Education: Miami University (undergraduate) How are your employees feeling as they and your business emerge from the pandemic? The

team quickly responded to navigate the many curveballs it threw at us, and now we’re doubling down on these investments to further unlock growth and innovation.

MANUFAC TURING & TE CH

Cris Collinsworth

Richard Corrado

Steve Cuntz

CEO Pro Football Focus

PRESIDENT AND CEO Air Transport Services Group

PRESIDENT AND CEO BlueStar

The former Bengals wide receiver and current NBC Sunday Night Football commentator saw the value in analytics early. He bought a majority interest in the company founded by Englishman Neil Hornsby, who relocated to Cincinnati in 2014. They doubled the space in their Over-the-Rhine offices, installed top notch recording and video production capabilities, and hired more staff. PFF plans to add soccer and rugby to its grade-and-analyze services.

Corrado replaced Joe Hete, who led the Wilmington-based company since 2003 before retiring last year. ATSG provides leased air cargo transportation for customers such as DHL, Amazon, and the U.S. military, posting revenue of almost $1.6 billion in 2020. It announced plans to partner with Florida-based GA Telesis to open a Specialized Procedures Aeroengine Hospital, a repair, inspection, and maintenance facility for aircraft engines.

Cuntz joined the Hebron-based global provider of solutions-based electronics such as bar-code scanners and inventory tracking devices to resellers as controller in 1985, then became CEO in 2008. Its 2009 revenue was $365 million; since then Cuntz has helped BlueStar grow into the region’s second-largest private company with almost $1.8 billion in revenue in 2019.

Hometown: Titusville, Florida Education: University of Florida (undergraduate), University of Cincinnati (J.D.)

Education: Harvard University (undergraduate), Boston College (MBA)

Todd Dickson

Chris Froman

Education: Xavier University (undergraduate and MBA)

David Gelwicks

CEO Champion Windows

CHAIRMAN Pomeroy

PRESIDENT Hickman, Williams & Co.

Dickson has led the home improvement company since 2014. Champion was founded in 1953 as a manufacturer of aluminum screen doors, windows, awnings, and screen rooms, and today it’s located on a state-ofart headquarters and manufacturing campus in Sharonville. The company posted revenue of more than $280 million in 2020 and employs more than 1,100 people with 50 U.S. showrooms.

Froman led the ﬁrm from 2009 until it was sold to Getronics of the Netherlands in 2018, then returned to lead the Hebron-based provider of IT infrastructure, staffing, procurement, and logistics services in 2019. In September, the company named Chief Information Officer Bob Watts as CEO and Chief Revenue Officer John Blackburn as President, while Froman took on the role of Chairman.

Gelwicks leads the employee-owned company that has supplied raw materials (from carbon and steel production products to metals and alloys) to the foundry industry since 1890. The ﬁrm has ﬁve regional offices in North America, with its corporate headquarters in downtown Cincinnati. It posted revenue of almost $140 million in 2020.

Hometown: Miami, Florida Education: University of Florida (undergraduate)

Hometown: Cincinnati Education: University of North

Carolina (undergraduate)

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MANUFAC TURING & TE CH

Michael Gilbert

Gary Heiman

Paul Gohr

CEO Aristech Surfaces

C H I EF AC C O UN T I NG OF F I CE R CECO Environmental Corporation

PRESIDENT AND CEO Standard Textile

Gilbert leads the Florence-based company that’s manufactured acrylic sheet and surface products for architects, designers, and fabricators in the construction industry since it was founded in 1970. Aristech has a second manufacturing plant in Belen, New Mexico, and an international office in London. It posted revenue of almost $70 million in 2020.

Gohr is the ranking company executive in the local office in Madisonville, which shares headquarter functions with the Dallas office. As Chief Accounting Officer, he oversees all aspects of the company’s global accounting function and compliance. CECO provides environmental technology expertise to improve air quality and engineer solutions for industrial partners in oil and gas, power generation, water and wastewater, and chemical processing.

Heiman is the third-generation leader of the business his grandfather started as a linen distributor in 1940. It partnered with the Cleveland Clinic to produce a nonmedical, reusable face mask for use during the pandemic, and Standard donated the majority of proﬁts from the product to COVID research. It operates more than 20 manufacturing and distribution centers in 11 countries and posted revenue of more than $805 million in 2020.

Education: Grove City College (undergraduate)

Hometown: Cincinnati Education: Washington University (undergraduate), Georgia Institute of Technology (master’s)

Stephen Hightower

Jim Jurgensen II

Jack Kenny

PRESIDENT AND CEO Hightowers Petroleum

CEO Jurgensen Companies

CEO Meridian Bioscience

Hightower founded the Middletown-based wholesale fuel distribution business that’s the largest minority-owned business in Greater Cincinnati in 1982. It supplies gas for new General Motors, Honda, and Nissan cars and counts Kroger, FedEx, and Waste Management among its ﬂeet customers. It also has operations in South Africa and Nigeria and posted almost $500 million in revenue in 2020.

Jurgensen is the third-generation leader of the family ﬁrm founded by his grandfather John as a small construction contractor in 1934. It’s grown to more than 25 companies that provide services from asphalt paving to tank, barge, and rail transloading. It is part of the ownership group of Freedom Pointe, the $150 million mixed-use development that includes retail and more than 400 apartments north of Cincinnati.

Kenny leads the company that manufactures and distributes diagnostic test kits and biopharmaceutical technologies to hospitals, research facilities, and doctors. Its stock rose almost 80 percent during a stretch of 2020 on the strength of its Covid-related testing products. It continued a string of acquisitions with a $20 million stake in Otsuka America Pharmaceutical’s BreathTek this year. Meridian posted revenue of more than $250 million in 2020.

Hometown: Middletown What has been the toughest challenge for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic? How to be resilient as we continue to serve

Hometown: Cincinnati Education: Lafayette College (undergraduate), Washington University (MBA) What has been the toughest challenge for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic? To recognize the impact

the business community. Our entrepreneurial spirit and strong values helped us prevail. I believe it’s not time to retreat, but time to be creative. Has your leadership approach changed because of the pandemic? Surviving tough times makes you better. You spend less, you work more, and you get through it.

to the families, especially those with children, of our team members. The business will be OK. Has your leadership approach changed because of the pandemic? We’ve been more accepting of remote meetings in our office and our industry.

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Hometown: Southﬁeld, Michigan Education: GMI Engi-

neering & Management Institute, now Kettering University (undergraduate)

MANUFAC TURING & TE CH

Jay Lambke

Jeff Lackey

Doug Lang

PRESIDENT CBTS

PRESIDENT Government Acquisitions Inc.

PRESIDENT Meyer Tool

Lackey, who joined CBTS in 2016, held a number of executive roles including COO before taking the top job in 2020. In January, the company announced the creation of more than 100 new jobs after an agreement with the Ohio Tax Credit Authority and JobsOhio to expand its ﬁber networks and technology and professional services. The company posted $617 million in sales in 2020.

Lambke has led the IT ﬁrm since 2013. GAI counts many federal government agencies as clients, including the IRS, USDA, Social Security Administration, and Army, providing and supporting capabilities such as cybersecurity, cloud computing, data center modernization, artiﬁcial intelligence, and robotic process automation. It posted $320 million in revenue for 2020.

Lang, who has been with the company since 1981, was named the top executive in 2016. Founded in 1951, Meyer provides precision components to the aerospace and gas turbine manufacturing sectors and employs more than 950 people at 12 locations in North America and Europe. It posted revenue of $255 million in 2020. Hometown: Cincinnati Education: University of Cincinnati (undergraduate) What has been the toughest challenge for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic? Keeping the production lines running to meet customer needs. Has your leadership approach changed because of the pandemic? Not really changed. I’m still focused

Hometown: Bunker Hill, Indiana Education: Indiana University (undergraduate)

on producing quality products on time and continuing to build a great team. Our strength is in our people.

John Mactaggart

Ken Oaks

Tom Nies

PRESIDENT AND CEO Field Aerospace

CEO Cincom Systems

CEO AND CHAIRMAN Total Quality Logistics

Mactaggart is the top executive at the Kenwood-based aviation company that delivers special mission aircraft solutions to customers around the world from facilities in Oklahoma City, Toronto, and Calgary. Former Chairman Dan Magarian, one of ﬁve shareholders who acquired Field Aviation in 2012, sold his stake in the company to Trive Capital Partners of Dallas in 2020 and became a founding partner in the Roebling Capital Partners private equity ﬁrm.

Nies was working for IBM in 1968 when he decided that software was the future of business information technology. Cincom is one of the largest international independent software companies in the world, and Nies is the longest-serving CEO in the computer industry. Cincom has 17 locations around the world and posted revenue of more than $80 million in 2020.

Oaks has grown the privately held company he founded in 1997 into the largest in Greater Cincinnati and second-largest freight brokerage ﬁrm in the U.S. The ﬁrm has more than 2,000 employees locally and more than 5,000 at 56 locations in 26 states. The company is the naming rights partner of FC Cincinnati’s West End stadium. It had revenue of about $4.1 billion in 2020.

Hometown: Cincinnati Education: University of Cincinnati (undergraduate and MBA) What has been the toughest challenge for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic? Maintaining positive and active contact with the marketplace. Has your leadership approach changed because of the pandemic? No change. The key issues have

Hometown: Cincinnati Education: University of Dayton

(undergraduate)

remained constant.

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MANUFAC TURING & TE CH

Andrea Pirondini

John Richardson

Joe Raver

CEO Prysmian Group North America

PRESIDENT AND CEO Hillenbrand

CH A I R M A N SugarCreek

Pirondini was promoted in February to oversee North American operations of Prysmian Group, the Italian company that owns Highland Heights-based General Cable. He replaces Massimo Battaini, who was moved to global responsibilities within Prysmian. The company manufactures underground and submarine cables and systems for power transmission and distribution, and optical ﬁber and copper cable for voice, video, and data transmission with operations in more than 50 countries.

Raver, who has led the diversiﬁed manufacturing ﬁrm for eight years, will retire on January 1 and be replaced by Executive Vice President Kim Ryan. Raver negotiated the almost $2 billion acquisition of Milacron Holdings in 2019 and has worked for Hillenbrand for 27 years. Ryan, who has been with the company for 33 years, was president of Batesville Casket among other roles in her career. Hillenbrand reported revenue of more than $2.5 billion in 2020.

Since 1990, Richardson has led the food manufacturing business started by his father in 1966. The company announced plans for two major projects this year: $10 million to create a new production facility in Sharonville that will add 235 jobs, and the creation of headquarters campus in Blue Ash with ﬁve buildings and an event center. It employs more than 2,800 people at locations in Ohio, Indiana, and Kansas and posted $800 million in revenue in 2020.

Education: Dartmouth College (undergraduate), Northwestern University (MBA)

Hometown: Washington Court House, Ohio Education: Illinois State University (undergraduate) What has been the toughest challenge for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic? In a word, labor. If this pandemic

has shown us anything it’s how important out people are to the business. We simply can’t do it without them, and we have to pay them, be ﬂexible with their schedule, and keep them safe.

Ron Rosenbeck

Steve Shifman

John Slattery

CEO Republic Wire

PRESIDENT AND CEO Michelman

PRESIDENT AND CEO GE Aviation

Rosenbeck was one of three founders of a copper wire manufacturer in 1982. After buying out his partners, Republic started to manufacture multiple kinds of aluminum and copper wire for distributors, utilities, and municipalities, eventually expanding to a 350,000-square-foot operation in West Chester and a network of 20 sales representatives covering the U.S. Republic posted revenue of $260 million in 2020.

Shifman, who has led family-owned enterprise since 2003, will move to Executive Chairman next year and be replaced by Richard Michelman, who is currently Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President for the Americas. The Blue Ash-based ﬁrm, founded in 1949, manufactures water-, vapor-, and grease-resistant coatings for the packaging industry. It had revenue of more than $210 million in 2020.

Education: Miami University (undergraduate)

Hometown: Springﬁeld, Ohio Education: University of Colorado (undergraduate), Xavier University (MBA)

Slattery, who worked for Brazilian aerospace ﬁrm Embraer, took over leadership of the region’s third-largest manufacturer last year. In July, the company announced the Revolutionary Innovation for Sustainable Engines (RISE) program with Safran of France, its partner in CFM International, to develop the next generation of engines with goal of reducing emissions by 20 percent. It has about 9,000 employees at its Evendale headquarters and manufacturing facility, in support and services in Hebron, and at a testing site in Peebles.

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MANUFAC TURING & TE CH

James Stahl Jr.

Larry Stoddard

Greg Tucker

PRESIDENT CBT Co.

PRESIDENT AND CEO RelaDyne

CEO ProAmpac

In 1975, Stahl bought the distributor of electrical and mechanical products that began as the Belting Company of Cincinnati 100 years ago. Stahl grew the ﬁrm from ﬁve employees to more than 200. In 2016, it built a central headquarters on Ridge Road in Columbia Township and added a distribution center in Sidney, 40 miles north of Dayton. It posted revenue of $214 million in 2020.

Stoddard, who has led the company since 2010, has grown the producer of lubricants, fuel, diesel exhaust ﬂuid, and industrial reliability services to become one of the largest private businesses in Greater Cincinnati with more than $2 billion in revenue in 2019. It continued its aggressive acquisition strategy, buying California-based Alexis Oil and Global Industrial Solutions in July. Last year it purchased New West Oil of Arizona and Nick Barbieri Trucking of California.

Tucker leads the Springdale-based ﬂexible packaging company owned by Pritzker Private Capital. He oversees a growing operation (six acquisitions this year) that has 45 manufacturing centers on three continents with more than 5,700 employees serving over 5,000 customers in eight countries. Since Tucker’s arrival in 2015, annual revenue has grown from $446 million to almost $1.5 billion last year.

Hometown: Pittsburgh (born) and Cincinnati (raised) Education: University of Notre Dame (undergraduate),

Hometown: Atlanta Education: Auburn University

University of Virginia (MBA)

(undergraduate)

Mike Venerable

Hometown: Boston Education: Worchester Polytechnic Institute (undergraduate)

Matt Ventura, Pete Ventura, James Steger

Paul Verst

CEO CincyTech

OWNERS Integrity Express Logistics

CEO Verst Logistics

Venerable leads the ﬁrm that galvanized the growth of high potential startups in Greater Cincinnati. His fingerprints are all over the seed fund’s mission of working with entrepreneurs, investors, research institutions, and community stakeholders to fund technology and life science startups. CincyTech’s move to the University of Cincinnati 1819 Innovation Hub in 2019 helped kickstart the rebirth of the Reading Road-Martin Luther King Drive interchange.

The partners founded Integrity Express Logistics in 2007 and have built it into the third-largest logistics company in Greater Cincinnati with locations in Ohio, Tennessee, and Florida. It opened a new location in Orlando, its ninth overall and second in Florida. In March, it sold a minority stake to Eve Partners, an investment ﬁrm in Jacksonville. Integrity Express posted revenue of more than $545 million in 2020.

Since 1993, Verst has led the Walton-based company founded by his father Bill in 1966. He has help grow it into a multi-faceted fulﬁllment, packaging, transportation, and warehousing operation with more than 7 million square feet. It posted $255 million in revenue in 2020. Verst and Corporex Chairman William Butler gave a combined gift of $1 million to the Dan Beard Council of Boy Scouts and will help supervise the construction of the Eagle Leadership Lodge at Camp Michaels in Union.

Hometown: Hamilton Education: University of Dayton (undergraduate)

Hometown: Cold Spring Education: Xavier University (undergraduate and MBA)

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MANUFAC TURING & TE CH

Nigel Vinecombe

Mahendra Vora

Jeff Welsh

CEO Multi-Color Corp.

MANAGING DIRECTOR Vora Ventures

PRESIDENT AND CEO DuBois Chemicals

The Batavia-based label manufacturer, which was purchased by Platinum Equity for $2.5 billion in 2019, was sold this year to Clinton, Dubilier & Rice, a New York private equity ﬁrm. Vinecombe, a longtime executive, returned as CEO in 2019 to the company that is one of the world’s largest producers of pressure-sensitive, in-mold, and heat-transfer labels for the food and beverage, wine and spirits, home and personal care, and hardware and specialty markets.

The private equity group specializes in building IT companies and consulting with clients from startups to large corporations. It includes more than 10 companies (including AssureCare, Ascendum, Hinge, and Koncert) that provide software, services, and infrastructure solutions and employs more than 2,100 people worldwide. Vora posted revenue of more than $105 million in 2020.

Welsh has led the Sharonville-based chemical manufacturing company founded in 1920 as the DuBois Soap Company since 2008. Its parent ﬁrm, Jordan Co. of New York, sold it to Atlas Partners of Toronto in 2019. DuBois acquired Chemico Paint Removal and International Specialty Engineered Lubricants (ISEL) in 2020. It had revenue of $580 million in 2020. Education: University of Toronto (undergraduate and MBA)

Education: L.D. College of Engineering in Ahmedabad,

India (undergraduate), University of Michigan (master’s)

Air Transport Services Group extends a heartfelt congratulations to those honored as the Cincinnati 300, including our President & CEO Rich Corrado.

$,5 75$163257 6(59,&(6 *5283

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www.atsginc.com

MANUFAC TURING & TE CH

Stephen West

Ronald Wittekind

MANAGING PARTNER Ahead/RoundTower Technologies

PRESIDENT Hawkstone Associates

West and Stephen Power started RoundTower in 2007 as a technology systems integrator and solutions provider, before selling it to Ahead of Chicago in 2020. The transaction included the addition of California-based Kovarus, which gives the combined company more than $2 billion in revenue and over 1,000 employees. It is the region’s second-largest IT consulting ﬁrm with more than $460 million in revenue in 2020.

Wittekind runs the Harrison-based petroleum wholesaler and retailer founded in 1981 that does business as Triumph Energy Corp. The company represents the Shell, BP, Sunoco, and Marathon brands by operating or supplying nearly 100 gas stations in Cincinnati, Columbus, and Dayton. It posted $175 million in revenue in 2020.

THANK YOU LARRY!

Thanks to Larry Stoddard’s outstanding leadership, RelaDyne has grown from a regional family operation to a world-class, national and international provider of lubricants, fuel, DEF, and industrial services.

Get to know RelaDyne RELADYNE.COM

From automotive quick lubes and emergency services to specialized sectors like nuclear and the Department of Defense, there’s no project we can’t tackle. Partner with us to see what RelaDyne can do for you!

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NONPROFIT & GOVERNMENT

Andrew Aiello

Jeffrey Aluotto

Patty Brisben

GENERAL MANAGER TANK

A D M I N I ST R ATOR Hamilton County

F OU NDE R The Patty Brisben Foundation

Aiello began working at the Transit Authority of Northern Kentucky in 2004 and held a number of positions before being named to the top spot in 2010. TANK has a ﬂeet of more than 130 buses that serve Campbell, Kenton, and Boone counties on Local, Express, Airport, and Southbank Shuttle routes. Three directors from each county make up the board that sets policy for the system that was created in 1978.

Aluotto, who has been the county’s top administration official since 2016, first managed the Solid Waste District and then served as Assistant Administrator. He is responsible for coordinating elected and independent agencies as well as overseeing the management of departments such as ﬁnance and budgeting, community development, and all social services functions. More than 4,500 people work for the county.

Brisben was a single mother when she began selling intimacy products to women at in-home parties in 1983 to support four children. Ten years later, she founded Pure Romance and built it into a multimillion-dollar company. She created the foundation in 2006 to address the sexual health issues facing women throughout their life.

Hometown: Dayton, Ohio Education: Miami University (undergraduate), University of Cincinnati (MBA) What

Education: Miami University (undergraduate and master’s), Xavier University (MBA)

Hometown: Cincinnati What has been the toughest challenge for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic? Not having everyone together in

has been the toughest challenge for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic? The pandemic

the same room. The foundation was focused on raising funds for our annual grant cycle, and not having in-person events forced us to change how we go about it. Has your

was so disruptive to our industry that the usual metrics, signposts, and truisms we relied on were all pointing in new and wild directions. It was challenging to recalibrate our way of thinking and to continually reformulate strategy along the way.

I always say that leaders need to be surrounded by great people, and we were able to do things I didn’t think we would this past year because I’m fortunate to be surrounded by great people.

leadership approach changed because of the pandemic?

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NONPROFIT & G OVERNMENT

Brent Cooper

John Cranley

Lee Crume

PRESIDENT AND CEO NKY Chamber of Commerce

M AYO R City of Cincinnati

PRESIDENT AND CEO Northern Kentucky Tri-ED

Cooper, founder of C-Forward Information Technologies in Covington, has led the chamber since 2017. The organization advocates for and provides services to more than 1,500 businesses with more than 200,000 employees in the region. It teamed with the Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky African American Chamber of Commerce to let members join at a discount and led the NKY Restaurant Relief Fund that helped local eateries weather last year’s pandemic.

Cranley ﬁnishes his second term this year and has announced he will run for Governor of Ohio in 2022. He can tout population growth of more than 4 percent since the 2010 census to more than 309,000 in the latest count, as well as transformative development downtown and in neighborhoods such as Over-the-Rhine, Walnut Hills, and Evanston. Democrats David Mann and Aftab Pureval face off on November 2 to succeed Cranley.

Crume has led the Northern Kentucky Tri-County Economic Development Corporation, which markets and promotes Boone, Campbell, and Kenton counties to businesses, since 2019. In spite of losing much of its funding during the pandemic, the agency was able to lend support to more than 25 companies that expanded or made location announcements that are expected to bring almost $270 million in capital investment and more than 1,560 jobs to the region.

Hometown: Covington Education: University of Kentucky (undergraduate)

Hometown: Cincinnati Education: John Carroll University

(undergraduate), Harvard University (master’s and J.D.)

Marc Fisher

Jeanne Golliher

Hometown: Owensboro, Kentucky Education: Western Kentucky University (undergraduate and master’s)

Brian Griffin

CEO Mayerson JCC

CEO Cincinnati Development Fund

EXECUTIVE SECRETARY-TREASURER Cincinnati AFL-CIO Labor Council

Fisher has led the organization that celebrates Jewish life and welcomes people regardless of race, religion, or ability. JCC offers multiple programs for students, seniors, and people with special needs that includes state-of-the-art ﬁtness center, award-winning early childhood and senior centers, arts and cultural events, plus a day camp, outdoor pool, playgrounds, and basketball and tennis courts in Amberley Green.

Golliher has led the lending organization created by local financial institutions to share risk on innovative real estate ﬁnancing for under-served and emerging neighborhoods since 1998. Joe Huber, who has been with CDF since 2006, was promoted in March to President from COO and Chief Lending Officer. He will oversee the daily operations of the agency while Golliher will focus on relationships with the ﬁnancial institutions and its government, community, and philanthropic partners.

Griffin was elected to the top labor leadership position in September to replace Peter McLinden, who moved to Dayton to become AFSCME’s Regional Director. The Cincinnati AFL-CIO represents more than 100,000 members of almost 130 local unions throughout Ohio with the goal of obtaining economic justice in the workplace and social justice for working families. He serves on the city’s Civil Service Commission and is a member of the SORTA board.

Hometown: Cincinnati Education: Xavier University

Hometown: Gallipolis, Ohio Education: Ohio University (undergraduate and master’s) What has been the tough-

Hometown: Cincinnati Education: University of Michigan

(undergraduate), Northwestern University (MBA)

(undergraduate)

est challenge for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic? Communication. Everything we do

relies on people working with and for other people in the ongoing effort to raise each other up. It’s essential to keep humanity in human interactions.

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NONPROFIT & G OVERNMENT

Darryl Haley GENERAL MANAGER AND CEO Metro/SORTA

PRESIDENT AND CEO Greater Cincinnati Foundation

Haley, who has worked for the transit organization that provides bus service in Hamilton County and commuter routes from Clermont, Butler, and Warren counties into the city since 2006, was promoted last year after serving as interim leader. Hamilton County voters approved an 0.8 percent tax levy in 2020 that includes about $100 million annually for expanded bus service under a plan called Reinventing Metro: Phase I.

Katz has led the leading community foundation that brings together donors, nonproﬁts, and changemakers to improve the region since 2015. Founded in 1963, the agency has made more than $1.25 billion in grants, including $80 million in 2019. In addition to money, the organization sponsors programs to bring people together, including a series of sessions called Racial Equity Matters over the past year, and has invested in local affordable housing initiatives.

Hometown: Cincinnati Education: University of Cincinnati

Hometown: Greenwich, Connecticut Education: University of Vermont (undergraduate), University of Cincinnati (master’s), Xavier University (MBA)

(undergraduate)

Eric Kearney

Ellen Katz

PRESIDENT AND CEO Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky African American Chamber of Commerce The former Ohio state senator leads the organization that advocates for African American-owned businesses with programs, events, and resources. Kearney worked with Mayor John Cranley and other stakeholders on Ascend*Cincy, an initiative that aims to double the number of local minority-owned businesses in the next ﬁve years. In May, the chamber launched PIVOT to help businesses recover from the pandemic. Hometown: Cincinnati Education: Dartmouth College (undergraduate), University of Cincinnati (J.D.) Has your leadership approach changed because of the pandemic?

We’ve all changed as leaders and as humans. I’ve become even more nimble and resourceful, but I’ve always been a servant leader and that’s not going to change.

Peter Landgren

Eddie Koen

Kimm Lauterbach

PRESIDENT AND CEO Urban League of Greater Southwestern Ohio

PRESIDENT UC Foundation

PRESIDENT AND CEO REDI

Koen joined the organization in 2019 and helped organize the Black Lives Matter mural in front of City Hall. He also accepted a $1 million gift from Phil and Gail Holloman to establish the Center for Social Justice led by Rickell Howard Smith, former Greater Cincinnati Foundation Senior Director of Community Strategies.

The former Dean of UC’s College-Conservatory of Music has led the university’s chief philanthropic operation since 2017. The foundation is spearheading Next Now: The Campaign for Cincinnati, the school’s ambitious fund-raising campaign, which has a goal of $2 billion by 2024. The money will provide scholarships, fellowships, research, and healthcare initiatives to attract top talent to UC and UC Health.

Lauterbach leads the Regional Economic Development Initiative, launched in 2014 to advocate for companies locating or growing in Greater Cincinnati’s 15-county region. Since its creation, REDI has helped bring more than $1.4 billion in capital investment and 22,000 jobs to the area. The agency provides help in ﬁnding sites, securing ﬁnancing and tax incentives, and connecting with business leaders.

Hometown: Rochester, New York Education: University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (undergraduate)

Hometown: Dayton, Ohio Education: University of Dayton (undergraduate), Indiana University (master’s) What has

Hometown: Chicago Education: University of Alabama (undergraduate), University of Alabama at Birmingham (master’s), Samford University (J.D.) How are your employees feeling as they and your business emerge from the pandemic? Our employees are resilient and

have stretched themselves beyond their capacity. In 2019, we served 18,000 people in the metro area and Dayton. Post-pandemic, that number has ballooned to 40,000 people, with 70 percent of our clients never working with a nonproﬁt previously.

been the toughest challenge for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic? When it started, we had

just ﬁnalized our ﬁve-year strategic plan. Like everyone else, there was a lot of uncertainty around how we should adapt to the situation. No one knew how long it would last, and we still don’t, so it wasn’t easy deciding whether to plan for a few weeks, a few months, or even longer.

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NONPROFIT & G OVERNMENT

Gary Lindgren

Patrick Longo

Tim Maloney

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Cincinnati Business Committee

PRESIDENT AND CEO HCDC

PRESIDENT AND CEO Haile Foundation

Lindgren, the former Chief of Staff for Rep. Steve Chabot, leads the organization that directs the business community’s collective efforts to identify and provide leadership on issues important to the economic vitality of Greater Cincinnati. He helped launch the Cincinnati Regional Business Committee in 2012, which includes CEOs from nearly 100 mid-size Cincinnati companies, and leads that group as well.

Longo, who has worked at the former Hamilton County Development Co. for more than 20 years, took over the top spot in 2018. The organization helps build businesses and create jobs by providing incubation, lending, and economic development services. The agency, founded in 1983, has nurtured more than 300 resident companies, ﬁnanced more than $1 billion in projects, and helped create thousands of jobs.

Hometown: Cincinnati Education: Indiana University

Hometown: Cincinnati Education: John Carroll University (undergraduate) What has been the toughest challenge for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic? Handling calls and emails from struggling businesses

Maloney leads the private family philanthropic foundation created by the estate of Carol Ann and Ralph V. Haile. The organization, which simpliﬁed its name and moved to new offices this year, has distributed more than $140 million in grants to more than 380 organizations since 2009. Its support has been integral to such high-proﬁle events as Lumenocity and BLINK, and its People’s Liberty incubator project that made grants to individuals who will be the next generation of city leaders.

(undergraduate)

and communities that needed assistance with the vast array of newly created federal, state, and local assistance programs. The listening and hand-holding led to helping thousands of businesses in Greater Cincinnati to ﬁnd a path forward and to secure assistance.

Candace McGraw

Joseph Meyer

Jill Meyer

CEO Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport

PRESIDENT AND CEO Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber

M AYOR City of Covington

McGraw, who has led CVG since 2011, has helped create the largest North American cargo operation for both Amazon and DHL. Amazon opened its hub in August, the ﬁrst step toward 2,000 new jobs. DHL Express announced it would add 1,100 jobs, an increase of 25 percent to its local workforce. On the passenger side, Alaska Airlines began daily service from CVG.

Meyer has led the organization, which advocates for almost 5,000 businesses in Greater Cincinnati, since 2015. She collaborates with public officials to develop plans on issues such as transportation, health care, and education that fuel economic growth. The chamber is in the forefront of the campaign for a new Brent Spence Bridge and committed to recruiting and maintaining a diverse workforce across the region.

Meyer, who was elected in 2016, has helped shape a revitalization of the city. It was named “City Government of the Year” by the Kentucky League of Cities organization, which praised its “transformational” work during the pandemic. The award highlighted the $3 million public Wi-Fi project, riverfront improvements, and $90 million in private capital investment.

Hometown: Pittsburgh Education: Duquesne University (undergraduate and master’s) What has been the toughest challenge for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic? It continues to be uncertainty

Hometown: Cincinnati Education: Mount St. Joseph

(undergraduate), Northern Kentucky University (J.D.)

about the pandemic’s depth and duration. After initially losing 95 percent of passengers and associated revenues in March 2020, through the return of the summer leisure traveler in 2021, to the rise in the variant, we’ve had to be acutely aware of health and safety concerns.

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Hometown: Covington Education: Bellarmine University (undergraduate), St. Louis University (master’s), Northern Kentucky University (J.D.) What has been the toughest challenge for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic? To keep my employees safe and healthy (physi-

cally and mentally) as they respond to COVID-related needs while continuing to provide the “normal” day-today services citizens and businesses need.

NONPROFIT & G OVERNMENT

Beth Robinson

Dennis Schnurr

Brian Tome

PRESIDENT AND CEO Uptown Consortium

A R C H BI SH OP Archdiocese of Cincinnati

S E NI OR PASTOR Crossroads Church

Robinson leads the organization created by leaders of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden, UC Health, TriHealth, and the University of Cincinnati to collaborate on projects. It’s in the process of transforming the intersection of Reading Road and Martin Luther King Drive with the construction of UC’s Digital Futures Building and the planned Innovation Greenway, which would include trails for walking and biking, pocket parks, seating decks, and public art.

The Most Rev. Schnurr oversees an archdiocese of about 450,000 Catholics that has a tradition of faith, education, and healthcare in 19 counties of Greater Cincinnati and Dayton. Schnurr led the celebration its bicentennial in June at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Peter in Chains. It was established by Pope Pius VII in 1821, the ninth in the country at the time. Bishop Edward Fenwick was the ﬁrst leader of the new congregation.

Tome founded the nondenominational congregation in 1996. It has 11 campuses in Ohio and Kentucky and operates Prison Ministry at seven facilities. Tome has written four books; created OCEAN, the ﬁrst faith-based business accelerator; hosts The Aggressive Life podcast; and released Phantom Lake, an adventure motorcycle TV show. To mark its 25 anniversary this year, Crossroads donated $2.5 million to 75 nonproﬁts.

Hometown: Sheldon, Iowa Education: Loras College (undergraduate), Gregorian University (master’s), Catholic University of America (Ph.D.) What has been the

Hometown: Pittsburgh Education: Robert Morris College

Hometown: Georgetown, Ohio Education: University of Cincinnati (undergraduate and master’s) Has your leadership approach changed because of the pandemic?

It’s forced me to be aware of new changes in how we do our work and stay on top of what is happening next. My ability to embrace ﬂexibility and be ready to make these changes much quicker than I ever did before has grown as a result.

Moira Weir

toughest challenge for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic? As Catholics we believe that we

grow in faith and love of God together in community. In the minds of many, maintaining this sense of a community of faith is a key component to overcoming the challenges of the pandemic.

Allen Woods

PRESIDENT AND CEO United Way of Cincinnati

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR MORTAR

Weir, who led Hamilton County Jobs & Family Services for 12 years, is the ﬁrst female leader of the local United Way organization. The agency met its $50 million campaign goal this year, from more than 60,000 donors, in spite of the pandemic. Then, in December, McKenzie Scott, the former wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, gave $25 million to United Way as part of donations to a number of local nonproﬁts.

Woods, Derrick Braziel, and William Thomas II created the organization in 2014 to help marginalized entrepreneurs ﬁnd resources and partners. The Pendleton-based organization has grown to seven cities in six states. Its Entrepreneurship Academy is designed for people starting or growing a business. Alumni include Brian Jackson, CEO and head brewer of Esoteric, one of the few minority-owned breweries in the country. Woods and his wife, Kayla, host a marriage podcast, Permanent Plus One.

Hometown: Philadelphia Education: Simmons College

(undergraduate), Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary (master’s)

(undergraduate), Thomas Moore (MBA), Bryn Mawr College (master’s) What has been the toughest challenge for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic? My role as President and CEO began on March

16, 2020, when the state launched its pandemic response. The most challenging part was feeling a sense of urgency, understanding that time was of the essence, but the work also needed to be executed with tone of hopefulness.

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PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

Michael Allen

John Barrett

Patty Basti

CEO Allen.Associates

CHAIRMAN, PRESIDENT, AND CEO Western & Southern Financial Group

MANAGING PA RTNER KPMG

Allen founded the namesake executive search firm in 1994 for clients seeking executives and board members for companies that range from startups to Fortune 500. It placed 86 C-level executives in local firms in 2020, more than twice the number of its nearest competitor. It has evolved into advisory firm and strategic partner to clients it’s served in Cincinnati and Nashville for more than 25 years.

Barrett leads the financial services company that operates 10 subsidiaries that include six insurance companies, three investment firms, and a realty group. From its headquarters building at Fourth and Broadway downtown, the company has renovated the former Guilford School building and opened the Lytle Park Hotel on Pike Street. The company has been in its location since 1901 and has approximately 2,000 working from the site. As of March, the firm owned or managed more than $100 billion in assets, the most in its 133-year history.

Basti, who has been the firm for 19 years, replaced Michael Comer as leader of the international accounting firm’s local office. Comer had led local operations since 2008 and was named Partner-in-Charge of the company’s U.S. tax operations. Basti, who led the firm’s Internal Audit & Enterprise Risk department since 2007, retained that position when she became the first woman to run the Cincinnati office. KPMG has 75 CPAs among its 185 employees, which ranks No. 5 locally. Education: Miami University (undergraduate)

Hometown: Cincinnati Education: University of Cincinnati

(undergraduate)

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PROFE SSIONAL SERVICE S

Tony Desjardins

Marshall Dosker

Diane Egbers

MANAGING DIRECTOR Grey Midwest

PRESIDENT Strauss Troy

PRESIDENT Leadership Excelleration

Desjardins was named to lead the local marketing hub of the New York-based Grey Group advertising and communications ﬁrm after more than four years at Possible. The company, which has 115 employees in the local office, won 20 awards in the 2021 American Advertising Federation Cincinnati Chapter, more than any other agency. Its clients include Procter & Gamble, Conagra, Discover, and McCormick.

Dosker heads the office of 50 attorneys that was founded in 1953 by Orville Troy; his son Ken; Eugene Ruehlmann, who was Cincinnati mayor from 1967 to 1971; and Lucien Strauss. Dosker worked as a bookkeeper for his family’s ﬂoral business and earned his college degree in accounting, then went to work at Strauss Troy during school and was named president 24 years later. The firm sponsors the Strauss Troy Market on Fountain Square during the summer.

Egbers founded the company in 1997 before the term “executive coach” was part of the vernacular. She leveraged her experience as Vice President of Human Resources of Flagship Financial to help companies and organizations attract, train, and retain talented employees. The Kenwood-based firm provides leadership development, team coaching, and organizational culture development for clients such as GE Aviation and Cincinnati Public Schools.

Education: Wright State University Hometown: Cincinnati Education: University of Cincinnati (undergraduate), Xavier University (master’s) How are your employees feeling as they and your business emerge from the pandemic? My team was resilient beyond my

expectations and consistently rose to the occasion, always putting our essential clients ﬁrst. They were supportive and involved as we reinvented our services, and so we’re all now more conﬁdent and optimistic than ever before.

Chris Evans

Crystal Faulkner

Alan Fershtman

CEO Barefoot Proximity

PA R TN ER A N D CI NCI N N AT I M A R K E T L E A DE R MCM CPAs & Advisors

MANAGING PA RTNER Keating Muething & Klekamp

Evans joined Barefoot Proximity in 2005 after co-founding Ethos Interactive and leading Eviciti. He held a number of positions, including President for almost two years, before becoming CEO in 2013. Barefoot is the second-largest marketing, advertising, and branding ﬁrm in the region with 150 employees, working with clients such as Procter & Gamble, Bayer, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Harley-Davidson, and Andersen Windows.

Faulkner has led the local office of the Louisville-based ﬁrm since Cooney Faulkner & Stevens merged with it in 2016. The 2020-21 chair of the Ohio Society of CPAs writes a weekly column for The Enquirer and Cincinnati.com and is the host of BusinessWise Radio with Tom Cooney. Her experience in a wide range of tax and accounting ﬁelds led her to become an implementer on the Entrepreneurial Operating System that advises clients on how to increase value in their companies.

Fershtman succeeded Paul Muething in 2017 and oversees about 125 attorneys from the ﬁrm’s office at Vine and Fourth streets downtown. He’s also a Certified Public Accountant, and joined the ﬁrm in 1994. Muething, who was Managing Partner from 1995 to 2017, became Chairman in 2018. He is the son of founding partner John Muething, who started the firm in 1954 with William and Charles Keating; Donald Klekamp was added to the nameplate in the mid-1960s.

Hometown: Proctorville, Ohio Education: Marshall University and California State University–Fullerton (undergraduate)

Education: Miami University (undergraduate)

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PROFE SSIONAL SERVICE S

Chip Gerhardt

Robert Hoffer

Adam Hall

PRESIDENT Government Strategies

CEO Frost Brown Todd

MANAGING PA RTNER DBL Law

Gerhardt, the former Vice Chairman of the Hamilton County Republican Party and Deputy Director of the Governor’s Regional Economic Development Office under George Voinovich, founded the bipartisan government relations group in 2007 after working for KMK Consulting. The firm provides legislative and executive lobbying services, issue management, procurement services, and economic development strategy for clients.

Hall leads the ﬁrm that has more than 140 lawyers at its downtown headquarters and offices in West Chester and Florence. He joined the local office in 1991 and replaced George Yund in 2017 at the company that has more than more 500 lawyers in nine states, plus an office that opened in Washington, D.C., this year. Hall was the previous chair of the litigation department and former chair of the business and commercial litigation practice group.

Education: University of Notre Dame (undergraduate), Saint Louis University (J.D.)

Hometown: Grove City, Ohio Education: Ohio State University (undergraduate), Case Western Reserve University (J.D.)

Hoffer has the led the largest Northern Kentucky-based law firm that was founded more than 65 years ago by judges Bill Dunn and Jim Dressman Jr. since 2019. DBL has 50 lawyers in its offices in Crestview Hills, Cincinnati, and Louisville. It is a member of the Geneva Group International, one of the world’s largest alliances of independent firms. DBL is moving its headquarters into the renovated Monarch Building on East Fourth Street in Covington near the basement office where the business first launched.

Matthew Jessup

Steven Johnston

Lance Kwasniewski

MANAGING PARTNER Grant Thornton

CHAIRMAN, PRESIDENT AND CEO Cincinnati Financial

CEO Belcan

Jessup, who has worked for the ﬁrm for 19 years after 10 years at Arthur Andersen, has been Grant Thornton’s local office leader since 2017. An audit services partner and practice leader, he manages more than 90 local employees, including more than 40 CPAs and 50 tax and audit professionals. Grant Thornton is one of the largest tax, audit, and advisory ﬁrms in the world with 42,000 employees in more than 120 countries.

Johnston has led the parent company and its lead subsidiary, Cincinnati Insurance Company, since 2011. He was named chairman in 2020 when Ken Stecher retired. The Fairﬁeld-based property and casualty insurer posted more than $7.5 billion in revenue and more than $1.2 billion in income ion 2020. Johnston was named to the 202122 executive committee of the Commercial Club of Cincinnati, the organization founded in 1880 to promote the business, civic, and cultural interests of the region.

Kwasniewski leads the Blue Ash-based office of the international engineering, consulting, and technical recruiting ﬁrm, where he’s worked for more than 20 years. Belcan serves the aerospace, defense, automotive, and industrial markets, posting local billings of more than $200 million in 2020. It’s owned by the Connecticut-based private-equity ﬁrm AE Industrial Partners LP and acquired software engineering company Avista of Platteville, Wisconsin, in late 2020.

Education: Otterbein College (undergraduate)

Hometown: Pittsburgh Education: University of Pitts-

Hometown: Cleveland Education: University of Cincinnati (undergraduate) What has been the toughest challenge for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic?

Maintaining connectivity with our people who are working remotely. Has your leadership approach changed because of the pandemic? I believe it has. By default, my focus has been more internal as we strive to ensure that the needs of our people are being met.

burgh (undergraduate and master’s)

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PROFE SSIONAL SERVICE S

Nathaniel Lampley, Jr.

Carl H. Lindner III

S. Craig Lindner

MANAGING PARTNER Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease

CO-CEO American Financial Group

Lampley has led the local office of the Columbus-based ﬁrm since 2006. Fueled by a love for public speaking as a child, he set his sights on a law career when he was in middle school in Hamilton. He specializes in labor and employment law and litigation. He was inducted as a Fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers this year and received the American Jurisprudence Award upon graduation from the University of Cincinnati College of Law.

Lindner and his brother, Craig, have led holding company AFG, the parent of Great American Insurance Group, since 2005. He also serves as CEO of Great American Property and Casualty Group. He is the CEO and controlling owner of FC Cincinnati of the Major League Soccer, which opened its privately ﬁnanced TQL Stadium this year. He is leading the effort for Cincinnati to be one of 10 U.S. host cities for the 2026 World Cup.

AFG was formed by Lindner’s father, Carl Jr., and traces its roots to 1872 as the Great American Insurance Company. He also serves as CEO as Great American Insurance Group Annuities, overseeing its investment portfolio. Lindner and his wife, Frances, founded the Lindner Center of HOPE, a comprehensive mental health facility, in Mason that underwent an almost 16,000-squarefoot expansion in 2014. Its partnership with UC Health has made it one of the top destinations for treatment in the country.

Education: University of Dayton (undergraduate), University of Cincinnati (J.D.)

Hometown: Cincinnati Education: University of Cincinnati

(undergraduate)

Hometown: Cincinnati Education: University of Cincinnati

(undergraduate)

Sean Loring

Clement Luken, Jr.

Jason McCaw

PRESIDENT Trustaff

SENIOR PARTNER Wood Herron & Evans

CEO BelFlex

The healthcare professional staffing ﬁrm and its affiliate, CardioSolution, were acquired by Cornell Capital and Trilantic North America in February. The deal included Stella, a New York-based online staffing marketplace, whose co-founder, Adam Zoia, will be CEO of the combined company while Loring will be Chairman. Trustaff and CardioSolution continue to operate from their Cornell Road offices.

Luken joined the region’s largest intellectual property firm when he graduated from law school in 1986. He leads the firm with its executive committee of David Fitzgerald, Greg Ahrens, and Stephen Gillen. The practice has more than 35 lawyers and works with 150 independent associates in more than 50 countries. The firm, which is an original tenant of the Carew Tower that was built in 1930, was founded in 1868.

Hometown: Cincinnati Education: University of Cincinnati (undergraduate) What has been the toughest challenge for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic?

Hometown: Cincinnati Education: Xavier University

McCaw leads the company founded by his parents, Candace and Mike McCaw, to provide workforce solutions. With more than 25 locations across the country, it works with client partners that include Crocs, DHL, Pioneer Electronics, and Wayfair. In March, it acquired the consumer and food division of YourEncore, a consultancy created in 2003 from a Procter & Gamble plan that utilizes expertise of exiting executives. BelFlex posted $110 million in 2020 revenue.

(undergraduate and master’s), Northern Kentucky University (J.D.)

Education: Kenyon College (undergraduate)

At the start of the pandemic, we pivoted to quickly make all 400 internal team members remote, while continuing to provide around-the-clock support to more than 2,500 healthcare professionals working in the ﬁeld. The shift presented a host of new challenges at all levels of the organization that required strong, measured leadership.

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PROFE SSIONAL SERVICE S

Milen Mahadevan

Steve Martenet

Gus Perdikakis

PRESIDENT 84.51

PRESIDENT Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield Ohio

PRESIDENT AND CEO Gus Perdikakis Associates

Mahadevan joined DunnhumbyUSA in 2000 and held several positions, including Vice President of Client Solutions and Capabilities, before it was acquired by Kroger and changed its name. He took over the top spot in 2020 after Stuart Aitken was named Kroger’s Chief Merchant and Marketing Ofﬁcer. Mahadevan leads the team providing customer data, predictive analytics, and marketing strategy to drive sales and customer loyalty for 1,250 clients.

Martenet has worked in the insurance industry for more than two decades and leads Anthem’s commercial business and strategy in Ohio, serving more than 4 million customers. The company, which has its Ohio headquarters in Mason, is one of Greater Cincinnati’s largest employers with more than 2,500 workers.

Perdikakis founded the eponymous staffing company in 1979 with his wife, Jo Ann, and one employee, and the company has now grown to more than 350. The couple’s three children—Lynn, Mandie, and George—work with their parents, and grandson Gus is the third-generation of the family in the business.

Hometown: Mansﬁeld, Ohio Education: Bowling Green State University (undergraduate) Has your leadership approach changed because of the pandemic? It hasn’t fundamentally changed, but I’ve been forced to work different leadership muscles. I had to ﬁnd new ways to connect and engage with associates and embrace the new norm, which I think helped me become a better and more well-rounded leader.

Hometown: Cincinnati Education: University of Cincinnati (undergraduate) What has been the toughest challenge for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic? First and foremost to keep our employees safe and

Hometown: London, UK Education: Imperial College London (undergraduate and master’s) How are your employees feeling as they and your business emerge from the pandemic? Everyone is in a different place across the

spectrum, but we’re fortunate that our values-based leadership, our focus on inclusion and equity, and our caring and collaborative culture have strengthened through these times and been a glue that’s kept us together.

Jim Price

secure. Continuity of business was also paramount, so just the family members worked from our offices until all staff eventually returned. How are your employees feeling as they and your business emerge from the pandemic? Very positive, as business has returned and there’s real growth in staffing opportunities within current and new markets.

Jay Rammes

Jackie Reau

OWNER AND CEO Empower Media

MANAGING DIRECTOR Barnes Dennig

CEO Game Day Communications

Price has been CEO since 2009 of the firm founded by his mother, Mary Beth Price, in 1985. The largest local marketing and advertising ﬁrm has 175 employees working from its historic Over-the-Rhine headquarters and 50 more in Chicago. Connie Ross, who has been with the ﬁrm for 10 years, was named Vice President and Chair of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion this year as Price prioritizes those qualities in the company and its clients.

Rammes leads the region’s second largest locally-based accounting ﬁrm, which has more than 160 employees at four offices (downtown, Crestview Hills, Indianapolis, and Dayton) and merged with Dayton-based Thorn Lewis + Duncan to add 25 staff to the combined ﬁrm practicing under the Barnes Dennig name. Rammes began his career with Arthur Andersen before moving to his current position in 1994.

Reau and Betsy Ross, a former Channel 5 and ESPN sports anchor, founded the media and marketing firm in 2002. Reau had worked in marketing for The Christ Hospital and Cincinnati Art Museum before launching the company, one of the first female-led firms that focused on sports and entertainment. The firm is helping college athletes who are eligible to profit from the new Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) rules.

Hometown: Dayton, Ohio Education: Miami University (undergraduate), Xavier University (MBA) What has been

Hometown: Toledo, Ohio Education: Ohio University (undergraduate and master’s) What has been the toughest

the toughest challenge for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic? We’re in a people business, and

challenge for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic? We’ve never worked harder for our clients,

staying connected both with our clients and employees became a much greater challenge than in the past. Early on, I leaned on weekly Friday videos to personally tell everyone the “good, the bad, and the ugly” and what the organization was doing each week to work through everything.

guiding them on how to best communicate changes in their business, cancellations, and new pivot plans.

Hometown: Cincinnati Education: Presbyterian College (undergraduate) Has your leadership approach changed because of the pandemic? I always lean on our company

values, and two critical ones have been “Let’s be clear” and “Dust yourself off.” We keep a positive attitude and know that you just have to keep going, be resilient, and do the best you can.

Has your leadership approach changed because of the pandemic? I look for the silver linings to stay positive each

day, and I usually ﬁnd it.

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PROFE S SIONAL SERVICE S

Regina Carswell Russo

Kerry Roe

Todd Schild

P RES ID ENT Clark Schaefer Hackett

C EO RRight Now Communications

PA RT NE R - I N- CH A R G E Thompson Hine

Roe has led the largest locally based accounting firm, headquartered downtown with offices in West Chester, Fort Mitchell, Dayton, Cleveland, Columbus, Toledo, Springfield, and East Lansing, Michigan, since 2017. The firm has more than 80 CPAs in Greater Cincinnati and in May acquired Strategic HR, a Sycamore Township-based human resources and services firm.

Carswell Russo launched her communications firm in 2014 after spending two decades in broadcast media as well as serving in communications and marketing at the Cincinnati Art Museum and Contemporary Arts Center. The Black- and woman-owned/certified agency led the Regional COVID Communications Center throughout the pandemic.

Schild moved into the top local spot in 2020 and oversees about 60 attorneys here, the second-largest location of the parent company. The firm signed a new lease in the Scripps Center at Third and Walnut streets downtown, where it was an original tenant when the building opened in 1990. It moved from the 14th floor to offices on the 19th and 20th floors.

Hometown: Lima, Ohio Education: Wilmington College (undergraduate) What has been the toughest challenge

Hometown: Detroit Education: Purdue University (undergraduate) What has been the toughest challenge for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic?

Hometown: Cincinnati Education: Tufts University (undergraduate), University of Louisville (J.D.) How are your employees feeling as they and your business emerge from the pandemic? They’re tired of the impact the pandemic

for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic? Navigating uncertainty is always a great challenge

for leaders, and we’ve often covered new ground with pandemic conditions and little relevant experience to draw upon. How are your employees feeling as they and your business emerge from the pandemic? One thing I’ve learned is that our 550 employees have 550 different stories when we consider the impacts of the pandemic.

Relying on the information at hand to forecast and make decisions about growth and market needs, especially when information was changing almost hourly. There were days it was hard to stay optimistic, but what helped was knowing our services were supporting this region during a global crisis.

Larry Sheakley

continues to have on our lives, but they’re also optimistic that things will start to feel more normal soon. Has your leadership approach changed because of the pandemic?

It’s caused me to try to be more empathetic and to keep in mind that personal circumstances strongly influence how one’s life is impacted by the pandemic.

James Sowar

Gerald Sparkman

C EO Sheakley

M A N AGI N G PA RT NE R Deloitte

C EO D.E. Foxx & Associates

Sheakley has spent his career with the family-owned human resources, payroll, and risk management business founded in 1963. The company is one of the region’s largest private companies with more than $800 million in 2020 revenue. The Sheakley name is associated with many high-profile community endeavors, including the Cincinnati Ballet, Lighthouse Youth Services, Boys & Girls Club, and the University of Cincinnati. Sheakley is also a member of the ownership group of the Reds and FC Cincinnati. His son, Matt, has been President since 2005.

Sowar has led the local office of the international accounting firm since 2013. He left Arthur Andersen in 2002 to join Deloitte in 2002. It’s the largest office in Greater Cincinnati with 180 CPAs, 230 audit and tax professionals, and more than 500 total employees. Sowar is the company’s national tax leader for the Health Care Provider sector.

Since 1917, Sparkman has been CEO of the downtown-based company that includes FX Facility Group, XLC Services, and Versatex. It provides facility and construction management, manufacturing services, warehouse management, and sourcing and supply chain management. Foxx is the region’s second-largest minority-owned business with more than $325 million in 2020 revenue.

Hometown: Cincinnati

Hometown: Coldwater, Ohio Education: University of Notre Dame (undergraduate) What has been the toughest challenge for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic? Not being in person with my

team members and clients. While virtual meetings are great, they just aren’t the same. Has your leadership approach changed because of the pandemic? Somewhat. Pre-pandemic, I would regularly run into colleagues during the course of a day, a week, etc. Now I have really tried to structure regular touch points into the calendar to ensure we’re connecting.

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Hometown: Chicago Education: Anna Maria College (undergraduate), University of Notre Dame (MBA)

PROFE SSIONAL SERVICE S

Diane Surette

Adryanna Sutherland

Sarah Tomes

PRESIDENT AND CEO Burke, Inc.

PRESIDENT Gyro

CEO LPK

Surette leads the ﬁrm that was founded by Alberta Burke in 1931. She’s been with the ﬁrm since 1996, was named President in 2018, and CEO in 2019. It is the region’s second-largest market research company with more than 375 local employees providing research and insight, strategy and innovation, and education and training that’s touched more than 90,000 marketing professionals over 40 years.

Sutherland was named Global President, Creative & Content, in April. She had been COO U.S. operations since 2017 and in charge of the Cincinnati operation since 2009. The business-to-business advertising agency’s local office, one of 17 locations around the world, moved to the renovated Strietmann Center in Over-the-Rhine last year.

Tomes leads strategic vision, business processes, and organizational design for the employee-owned brand design firm that has five locations worldwide. The company was founded in 1983 by five employees in the local office of Young & Rubicam, who set out to make Cincinnati a branding center. LPK’s diverse client list includes the Contemporary Arts Center and Titleist Golf.

Hometown: Cincinnati Education: Miami University (undergraduate), University of Dayton (master’s) How are your employees feeling as they and your business emerge from the pandemic? Tired. The deﬁnition of “emerge”

Hometown: Alexandria, Kentucky Education: Thomas More University (undergraduate) What has been the

changes day by day, creating a lot of ﬁts and starts with the work. Has your leadership approach changed because of the pandemic? I keep a list of employees, clients, and other colleagues I haven’t had the chance to interact with in a while and make an effort to check in on a regular basis.

so we can’t turn away from what’s going on around us. The toughest part is sometimes just facing it, ripping the bandaid off and having pointed conversations about the injustices we’re seeing and possibly experiencing ourselves. And doing it in a way that strengthens our connection to each other, versus deepening the divides.

Hometown: Lewiston, Maine Education: Bentley University (undergraduate) What has been the toughest challenge for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic? Determining the safest course of action for

our employees while ensuring we could support our high standard of client service. It was a balancing act, but we solved it by prioritizing transparency and communicating, pure and simple.

Barbara Turner

toughest challenge for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic? Our business is part of culture,

Jeremy Vaughan

Nick Vehr

PRESIDENT AND CEO Ohio National

MANAGING PA RTNER Ernst & Young

CEO Vehr Communications

Turner became the ﬁrst woman and person of color to lead the life insurance company that was founded in 1909. She joined the ﬁrm in 1997 and had been President and COO, succeeding Gary Huffman on January 1. Ohio National, with $2.2 billion in 2020 revenue, agreed to be acquired by Constellation Insurance Holdings of New York in March for $1 billion but will continue to operate independently in Montgomery.

Vaughan took leadership of the international accounting ﬁrm’s local operations near the start of the pandemic in 2020. The native of England moved to Cincinnati in 2010 and now manages the second-largest local accounting office, with more than 360 employees who moved into new offices in the Atrium Two building in 2019. He and his wife arrived in the city with two children under the age of 3 and have added twins to the family.

Vehr is a former member of Cincinnati City Council who started the eponymous firm in 2007. He previously worked for Dan Pinger Public Relations and was a Vice President for the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber. He was instrumental in bringing the World Choir Games to town in 2012, serving as the event’s Managing Director. The company is affiliated with IPREX Global Communications, a group of more than 70 independently owned ﬁrms.

Education: University of Nottingham, England (under-

Hometown: Cincinnati Education: University of Notre Dame (undergraduate) What has been the toughest challenge for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic? Being nimble, patient, and creative are must-

Hometown: Cincinnati Education: University of Cincinnati (undergraduate) What has been the toughest challenge for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic? Maintaining connections and building relationships

in a virtual environment. There is really no substitute for in-person interactions and relationship building with our associates and clients. Has your leadership approach changed because of the pandemic? I’ve become more concise in my communication.

graduate)

haves for any small business owner. But COVID, as well as the racial unrest and most divisive presidential election in our lifetimes, required these character traits on steroids. Planning was hard. Predicting was impossible.

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PROFE S SSIONAL SIONAL SERVICE S

Raul Villar Jr.

George Vincent

Melissa Wasson

CEO Paycor

MANAGING PARTNER Dinsmore & Shohl

MIDWEST MARKET MANAGING PA RTNER PwC

Villar, who replaced founder Bob Coughlin in 2019, guided the payroll and human capital management firm through its initial public offering (IPO) on the Nasdaq exchange in July, when it raised more than $425 million—about $65 million more than projections. The Norwood-based company posted $352 million in sales for the fiscal year ending June 30, a 7 percent increase over the previous year. Paycor acquired Vancouver-based 7Geese, a performance management software firm, in 2020.

Vincent, who joined the firm in 1982, oversees the region’s second-largest law practice, with more than 225 attorneys among its more than 475 employees. Vincent became Managing Partner in 2007 and will leave the position at the end of 2022 following his 65th birthday. During his tenure, Dinsmore has merged with seven ﬁrms and expanded into 16 new markets, including Cleveland, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Boston, and Tampa. He will continue to practice at Dinsmore after leaving the leadership role.

Wasson leads the local operation of international accounting company PricewaterhouseCoopers. It is the third-largest accounting ﬁrm in Greater Cincinnati with more than 90 CPAs and 235 total employees. A partner since 2005, she was based in Louisville but works out of the Cincinnati office and commutes from her home in Georgetown to oversee operations of about 2,500 employees in 11 locations.

Hometown: Marlborough, Connecticut Education: Bryant University (undergraduate), University of Connecticut (MBA)

Hometown: Detroit Education: University of Michigan (undergraduate and J.D.)

Hometown: Georgetown, Kentucky Education: University of Kentucky, (undergraduate and master’s) How are your employees feeling as they and your business emerge from the pandemic? We were able to avoid laying off any

of our employees, so we’re well positioned as businesses emerge. Our teams are well equipped to support our clients ﬁnd solutions and sustained outcomes.

Helping you turn challenges into solutions. Advisory Services Tax Services Assurance Services

PEOPLE MATTER

LEADERS INSPIRE

EXCELLENCE RULES

513.579.1717 | www.mcmcpa.com |

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PROFE S SSIONAL SIONAL SERVICE S

Joe Willke

Mary Zalla

James Zimmerman

PRESIDENT Nielsen Consumer Neuroscience

MANAGING DIRECTOR Landor Cincinnati

PA RTNER-IN-CHARGE Taft Stettinius & Hollister

Willke has been in charge of the local ofﬁce of the market research and measurement ﬁrm since 2012. He added the title of President of Nielsen Innovation in 2018 when the company reorganized BASES into an autonomous unit to focus on new technology. That same year, it opened a million-dollar neuroscience lab at its downtown headquarters to help track of consumers’ reactions to advertising.

Zalla has led the local operation since 2011 and is also Global President Consumer Brands for the international ﬁrm that’s part of WPP, the world’s largest advertising company by revenue. She is a member of the parent’s Team Health and serves as a healthcare industry lead. Zalla has presented at the Cannes International Festival of Creativity and has worked with clients that include Procter & Gamble, Kraft/Heinz, Sara Lee, and Georgia Paciﬁc among others.

Zimmerman has been in charge of the local office of the national firm that traces its roots to 1885 and once included Robert and Charles Taft, sons of President William Howard Taft. The firm has more than 100 lawyers in Cincinnati, making it the city’s fourth largest. In February, it opened an office in Washington, D.C., for its new Public Affairs Strategies Group.

Hometown: Cincinnati Education: University of Notre

Dame (undergraduate)

Hometown: Covington Education: Northern Kentucky University (undergraduate and master’s)

Hometown: Atlanta until 14, then Cincinnati Education: Vanderbilt University (undergraduate and J.D.) What has been the toughest challenge for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic? We work closely

across practice groups and departments, so it took some creativity to ensure that this teamwork was uninterrupted and that new team members could successfully integrate into the organization.

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REAL ESTATE

Jeffrey Anderson

Adam Bortz

Dan Baker

PRESIDENT AND CEO Jeffrey R. Anderson Real Estate

CEO Baker Construction Enterprises

CEO Towne Properties

Anderson founded the ﬁrm in the 1970s while working with Wendy’s founder Dave Thomas, focusing on site selection for restaurants like McDonald’s, Taco Bell, Long John Silver’s, and Chi Chi’s. In the ’80s, the company shifted to neighborhood retail centers that include Hyde Park Station and Beechmont Station. In the ’90s, Anderson developed Rookwood Pavilion, then Rookwood Commons. The company has been hired to work on Kenwood Collection, Newport on the Levee, and University Station at Xavier, among other projects.

Baker founded Baker Cement Contractors with brothers Ken and Jim in 1968 after working with their grandfather in residential masonry in their hometown of Oxford. More than 50 years later, he leads the umbrella company that includes 11 separate entities. Based in Monroe, it’s one of the country’s largest specialty concrete companies and the ﬁfth-largest private ﬁrm in Greater Cincinnati with almost $1.5 billion in revenue in 2020.

Bortz’s father, Neil, started the company in the summer of 1961 when he bought several houses in Mt. Adams when the neighborhood was showing its age. The company that the younger Bortz oversees today owns or manages more than 12,000 apartments, more than 130,000 commercial and homeowners association units and 600,000 square feet of office space. Hometown: Cincinnati Education: Kenyon College (undergraduate) What has been the toughest challenge for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic?

Adapting to the ever-changing landscape of regulations, economic conditions, and health concerns that impacted our associates, families, and clients. Has your leadership approach changed because of the pandemic? Yes and no. I’ve always believed in trusting our associates to make decisions that align with our values to move Towne forward.

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REAL E STATE

William Butler

Sarah Close

Kent Dailey

CH AIRMAN Corporex Companies

O PER ATI N G PA RT N E R / B R OK E R Keller Williams Advisors Realty

OW NE R / B R OK E R RE/MAX Victory + Affiliates

Butler founded the W.P. Butler Construction Company in 1965, which grew into the Corporex of today, a group of six firms that control more than $1 billion of real estate investments in 20 major markets across the country. Corporex is the master developer of Ovation, the mixed-use project in Newport that includes the PromoWest music pavilion and will feature 1,000 residential units.

Close, the third generation of her family to work in real estate, began her career in 1992. She was one of five agents who founded the first local Keller Williams Realty office in 2005. Now located in Columbia-Tusculum, Keller Williams was the No. 6-ranked residential firm with more than 2,600 transactions and an average sales price of more than $237,000 in 2020.

Dailey, one of three owner/brokers of RE/ Max Affiliates in Northern Kentucky with Rod Fussinger and Jim Schack, became COO when the Kentucky and Ohio operations merged in 2020. The new company has seven offices: Florence, Highland Heights, and Falmouth in Kentucky; West Chester, Springboro, Beavercreek, and Troy in Ohio. It sold almost $950 million in homes with an average price of more than $221,000.

Hometown: Covington Education: University of Cincinnati (associate’s in civil engineering technology) How are your

Hometown: Centerville, Ohio Education: Miami University (undergraduate) How are your employees feeling as they and your business emerge from the pandemic? Grateful our industry has remained healthy, thriving in fact. And weary. Watching the earlier gains made against COVID erode is dispiriting. Has your leadership approach changed because of the pandemic? My fundamental responsibilities as a leader hold firm regardless of the current field conditions. That being said, I’m a little more comfortable with a light ring behind my computer camera than I was 18 months ago.

employees feeling as they and your business emerge from the pandemic? Corporex was excluded from the

lockdowns, and our people worked from home in part but continued in the office with precautions. Has your leadership approach changed because of the pandemic?

That’s not fully understood yet. There is a general acceptance to be more flexible with respect to where people are positioned to work.

Hometown: Taylor Mill Education: Northern Kentucky University (undergraduate) What has been the toughest challenge for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic? Trying to keep everyone as “normal” as possible as we navigate uncharted waters. Has your leadership approach changed because of the pandemic? I

think it’s changed all of us to some degree. As leaders, we need to be tolerant of different opinions while managing everyone’s safety concerns.

Brad DeVries

John Danis

David Drees

C EO Danis Building Construction

PR ESI D EN T A N D CEO HomeServices Kentucky (Huff Realty)

P R ES I DE NT A ND CEO Drees Homes

Danis is the third-generation family member to lead the privately owned company that offers design and construction expertise for the corporate, healthcare, senior living, education, retail, hospitality, and entertainment markets. It has five offices in Ohio, North Carolina, and Florida that produced more than $350 million in revenue in 2020. The firm is working to expand and renovate the Samuel Adams Brewery at Central Parkway and Liberty Street.

The firm that Jim Huff founded in 1975 has grown into the fourth-largest residential real estate broker in Greater Cincinnati with $1.16 billion in net sales in 2020, operating as the Berkshire Hathaway company HomeServices Kentucky. It closed on 5,155 transactions last year with an average price of almost $225,000.

Theodore Drees’ grandson became the third family member to lead the homebuilding company that began in Wilder in 1928. David’s father, Ralph, who started working for the company in 1959, died in March at 86. The board chairman at the time of his death, he was also a civic leader who served as Kenton County Judge-Executive from 2004-10. The company has agreed to buy 110 acres in Loveland from a national women’s society to keep 68 acres of the property known as Grailville.

Hometown: Naples, Florida Education: Centre College (undergraduate) What has been the toughest challenge for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic? Being separated from so many of our team. Our

company is based on relationships, and while technology has helped for sure it’s no replacement for time spent face to face. Has your leadership approach changed because of the pandemic? I was never a fan of work-from-home arrangements, but when we were forced to keep folks out of the office most of our staff performed remarkably.

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Hometown: Crescent Springs Education: Trinity University (undergraduate), Xavier University (MBA)

REAL E STATE

Monica Gerhardt

Melvin Gravely

Louis Guttman

MANAGING PARTNER Nelson Worldwide

CEO TriVersity Construction

PRESIDENT AND CEO Hills Properties

The former FRCH Nelson, which was located at 311 Elm Street for more than 30 years, is now Nelson Worldwide and moves to the Omnicare Center on East Fourth Street this fall. The company is the third-largest local architecture ﬁrm with almost $30 million in 2020 billings and about 100 local employees, with 18 architects. Gerhardt, also a Vice President of Account Management & Strategy, oversees the branding and design studio.

Gravely, the majority owner of the general contractor, sold a minority stake in the company to President and COO James Watkins. Messer Construction also owns a minority share. TriVersity will move its headquarters from Norwood to a redeveloped property in Walnut Hills near historic Peebles Corner. In 2020, Gravely was named the winner of the Carl H Lindner for Entrepreneurial and Civic Spirit, an annual award that recognizes the top private companies in Greater Cincinnati.

Guttman is the son of Murray Guttman, who founded the family-owned Blue Ash-based real estate company in 1958. Third-generation family members are now working for the ﬁrm that specializes in development, construction, ﬁnancing, and management of single-family homes, apartments, and commercial buildings. It is developing a $48 million luxury apartment community, Relay 129, as part of Freedom Pointe, an 88-acre mixed-use site in Liberty Township.

Hometown: Canton, Ohio Education: University of Mount Union (undergraduate), Kent State University (MBA), Union Institute and University (Ph.D.)

Michael Habel

Robert Hawksley

Mike Huseman

CEO BHDP

CEO Fischer Homes

CEO HGC Group

Habel leads the downtown-based design firm that specializes in architecture, planning, interior and graphic design for clients in workplace, higher education, industrial, discovery and science, healthcare and retail markets. It is the second-largest local architecture firm with almost $30 million in 2020 local billings and 30 registered architects. It also has offices in Columbus, Charlotte, and Raleigh, North Carolina. The firm was founded in 1937 by Cyrus Baxter.

Hawksley, who succeeded founder Henry Fischer in 2014, leads the largest local homebuilder that expects to post more than $1 billion in revenue for the ﬁrst time in 2021. The Erlanger-based company’s 2020 revenue increased 18 percent over the prior year. Fischer sold 3,279 homes in 2020 compared to 2,336 in 2019. To help meet the demand, the company hired more than 240 new employees over the past two years, including the acquisition of Payne Family Homes of St. Louis.

Huseman, the third generation to lead the family-owned business and its president since 2002, was named CEO in 2020. In addition to HGC Construction, the company includes SSRG, Stanton Millworks, Stewart Iron Works, and Trade31, its team of precision builders. Its recent projects include the new Tire Discounters headquarters and the Kinley Hotel downtown.

Hometown: Cincinnati Education: University of Cincinnati

(undergraduate)

Hometown: Fort Myers, Florida Education: University of Florida (undergraduate)

Hometown: Cincinnati Education: Xavier University (undergraduate) What has been the toughest challenge for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic? Keeping our employees connected. We’re a very

hands-on group and pride ourselves on being more on the collaborative side of the spectrum to get our jobs done. How are your employees feeling as they and your business emerge from the pandemic? I think they’re emerging with

a greater feeling of camaraderie and heightened purpose, and there’s a general feeling of optimism.

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REAL E STATE

Steve Leeper

Joe King

Bobby Maly

GROUP PRESIDENT Coldwell Banker Realty

PRESIDENT AND CEO 3CDC

CEO Model Group

King, who has led the parent company’s Ohio, St. Louis, and Minnesota operations since 2017, has been in charge of the Cincinnati and Columbus offices of Coldwell Banker since 2005. It has more than 930 local agents, more than any other real estate ﬁrm, and was No. 2 in 2020 sales volume with $2.26 billion on more than 8,500 transactions and an average price of $263,000. The ﬁrm rebranded as Coldwell Banker Realty in Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana in 2020 to align with the corporate name.

Leeper has guided the Cincinnati Center City Development Corporation through a period that forced a large number of workers to stay away from downtown offices, while spending more than $50 million to convert the former Macy’s building across from Fountain Square into the Foundry, a combination of Class A office space and retail. 3CDC announced that Deloitte and Turner Construction have leased 57,000 square feet of space on the project’s second ﬂoor.

Maly, who was one of ﬁve owners of the Over-the-Rhine-based development, construction, and management group, succeeded Steve Smith as CEO in 2020. They announced a plan to shift 40 percent ownership of the company to its workers in an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP). Model, which was founded in 2001, focuses on urban neighborhoods such as Walnut Hills, Pendleton, and Over-the-Rhine.

Hometown: Pittsburgh Education: Ohio University (undergraduate)

Elizabeth Mangan

Mark Meinhardt

Gary Mitchell

CEO Miller-Valentine Construction

PRESIDENT Star One Realtors

PRESIDENT AND CEO Divisions Maintenance

Ten years after joining the company, Mangan, who became general counsel in 2011 and a partner in 2014, took over the top spot of the ﬁrm founded in 1963 to build bridges and highways. It has since developed more than 100 million square feet of commercial real estate and more than 15,000 multi-family housing units from its locations in Cincinnati and Dayton and Columbia and Charleston, South Carolina. The ﬁrm posted $206 million in revenue in 2020.

Meinhardt worked with his father, George, who was a founding partner of Star One in 1990, and took over leadership of the company after his death in 2011. Meinhardt began his career in 1987 with his father at West Shell and has been active in a number of professional organizations, including a seat on the board of the Home Builders Association of Great Cincinnati since 2012. Star One sold 2,070 homes in 2020 with an average price of more than $255,000.

Mitchell founded the facilities maintenance provider in 1999, growing it into one of the largest private companies in Greater Cincinnati. It posted revenue of more than $430 million in 2020, up from $312 million in 2019, and has set the ambitious goal of becoming a billion-dollar business in the next three years. The company has focused on innovative technology and announced it would hire about 100 new engineers, IT specialists, and data analysts this year.

Hometown: Nitro, West Virginia Education: West Virginia University (undergraduate), Georgetown University (J.D.)

Hometown: Cincinnati Education: University of Cincinnati

Hometown: Cold Spring What has been the toughest challenge for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic? Keeping our people on track and focused on

(undergraduate)

new opportunities. Our business declined rapidly and signiﬁcantly, and we needed to get into new service lines quickly. How are your employees feeling as they and your business emerge from the pandemic? It’s a difficult time, to say the least, but also an exciting time for us.

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REAL E STATE

Shenan Murphy

Robert Myers

Scott Nelson

CEO AND PRINCIPAL Colliers International

C H I EF OP E R AT I N G OF F I CE R Phillips Edison

CEO Comey & Shepherd

Murphy began his career as an investment broker with West Shell Commercial. He was named COO in 1998, then bought the company in 2000. In 2010, it joined Colliers to gain access to a worldwide network of connections. In addition to managing 145 properties in Greater Cincinnati, Colliers offers brokerage sales, investment, construction, and IT services.

Myers oversees the local headquarters of the real estate investment ﬁrm that went public on the Nasdaq exchange in July, raising more than $475 million in its initial public offering. The company, founded in 1991 by Mike Phillips and Jeff Edison, focuses on neighborhood shopping centers anchored by grocery stores. It owns more than 275 properties and manages others that total more than 31 million square feet in 30 states.

Nelson is the son of Roy Nelson, who bought the company in 1968 from founders Harold Comey and Edward Shepherd. He and President Terry Hanker run the largest residential real estate brokerage in Greater Cincinnati, which reported sales of $2.35 billion on 9,610 transactions with an average price of $244,000 in 2020. The 2021 home market started the year at an even faster pace when the average home price broke records in May.

Hometown: Cincinnati Education: University of Cincinnati (undergraduate) How are your employees feeling as they and your business emerge from the pandemic? The sup-

port we’ve poured into our people has assured them our leadership team is clearly behind them and appreciative of their efforts. Has your leadership approach changed because of the pandemic? Our deep commitment to technology allowed us to manage and accelerate relationships through this new period of remote work, which is playing a major role in our industry.

Hometown: Van Wert, Ohio Education: Huntington College (undergraduate) What has been the toughest challenge for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic? Ensuring strong, consistent communication and

collaboration across the company and with our neighbors (our name for our tenants). Has your leadership approach changed because of the pandemic? Our leadership group has truly embraced and appreciated our team’s adaptability and agility.

Molly North

Dan Neyer

Jeremy Raby

PRESIDENT AND CEO Neyer Properties

CEO Al. Neyer

PRESIDENT AND CEO ERA Real Solutions Realty

Neyer has worked in the family business of commercial real estate development for more than 35 years. He started his own company in 1995 and has been personally involved in more than 500 projects that total more than $1.5 billion in value. In 2020, the company put six buildings up for sale as it turned its focus to new projects such as the Three Oaks residential development in Oakley that will include more than 100 homes, 400 apartments, and a senior living facility.

North has led the employee-owned ﬁrm since 2015 and expanded its executive team this year as business continued to grow. Dan Ruh was promoted to President and Cincinnati market leader of the commercial real estate development and construction company. Neyer has grown to 143 employee-owners, up from 43 when the ESOP was created in 2014. It had local billings of more than $165 million in 2020 through offices here and in Pittsburgh, Nashville, and Raleigh, North Carolina.

Raby, who created the residential real estate ﬁrm in 2007, oversees a company with four offices and more than 165 local agents. ERA closed on more than 1,400 transactions in 2020 with more than $305 million in sales and an average price of $216,000. In 2019, the company acquired Right Choice Realty in Ft. Myers, Florida, to serve Ohioans buying second homes or relocating.

Hometown: Cincinnati Education: Miami University (undergraduate) What has been the toughest challenge for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic? Keeping

people focused on the job at hand and accepting the reality that most things are out of our control, so it’s best to focus on what we can control, such as customer response.

Hometown: Wilmington, Ohio Education: University of Cincinnati (undergraduate)

Hometown: Cincinnati Education: University of Cincinnati (undergraduate) What has been the toughest challenge for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic? Most of our company culture is collaboration, sharing

best practices, and learning from each other, so trying to maintain this environment virtually was very difficult. How are your employees feeling as they and your business emerge from the pandemic? Most are feeling ready to

get back to some sort of normalcy and get back with their teams and work as one unit again, face to face.

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REAL E STATE

Matthew Schottelkotte

Kevin Schutte

Robin Sheakley

CEO GBBN Architects

MANAGING DIRECTOR CBRE

PRESIDENT Sibcy Cline

Schottelkotte began his career in 1984 and worked for a number of ﬁrms before joining GBBN, which was the largest local ﬁrm with $32.5 million in billings in 2020. The company designed the Andrew J Brady ICON Music Center on The Banks, which opened in July, and the Cincinnati Ballet’s Margaret and Michael Valentine Center for Dance in Walnut Hills that opened this fall.

Schutte has been in the commercial real estate business since 1995, when he worked at Paul Hemmer Companies as a leasing agent. He leads the local office of the global company that specializes in investment properties, workplace solutions, asset services, project management, and portfolio administration. It manages more than 17.5 million square feet of property locally, including the GE Global Operations Center, First Financial Center, and Ohio National.

Sheakley is the fourth generation to lead the family business, founded by her great-grandfather in 1930. She runs the daily operations of the third-largest residential brokerage that posted 2020 sales of more than $2.2 billion on almost 8,100 transactions with an average price of $287,000. This year, it introduced Sibcy Solutions, an online program that helps agents showcase multiple selling options for homeowners in a partnership with Colorado-based startup Zavvie.

Hometown: Cincinnati Education: University of Cincinnati

Hometown: Cincinnati Education: Miami University

(undergraduate)

Hometown: Cincinnati Education: University of Cincinnati (undergraduate) Has your leadership approach changed because of the pandemic? Our entire leadership team has

increased the frequency and detail of our communications with staff. There’s nothing worse than repeatedly changing the information you’re sharing.

We don’t just see social distancing. We see an opportunity to build relationships that withstand physical distance. Hindsight is 2020 will forever have a new meaning and we are embracing the opportunity as leaders to clarify visions, build relationships and recruit talent that not only emphasizes but executes those visions. $V $OEHUW (LQVWHLQ RQFH VDLG ȊLQ WKH PLGGOH RI GLɝFXOW\ OLHV opportunity” and as a company we took this opportunity to grow DV OHDGHUV LQ WKH PDUNHW WR JURZ RXU ȴUP DQG WR JURZ RXU culture. Our Colliers culture matters in every decision we make.

Reach out today to learn more about how you can join our team and have the opportunity to accelerate your success at Colliers! Colliers.com/Cincinnati Accelerating success.

7 0 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M C I N C I N N AT I 3 0 0 | 2 0 2 1

INSPIRING COMMUNITIES CHANGING SK YLINES

Corporex has a 56-year legacy of transforming skylines and investing in the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky region. Ovation is doing so again through a vision to connect the community to the river. The 25-acre mixed-use development will feature over 1,000 residential and rental units with Cincinnati skyline views, retail, restaurants, hotels, ofﬁces and the newly opened PromoWest Pavilion.

www.OvationNKY.com

www.corporex.com

REAL TK SEECSTATE TION

Albert Smitherman

David Spaulding

Tim Steigerwald

PRESIDENT AND CEO Jostin Construction

VICE PRESIDENT AND GENERAL MANAGER Turner Construction

PRESIDENT AND CEO Messer Construction

Smitherman had worked in the concrete construction industry for 12 years when he launched Jostin Construction (named after sons Joshua and Justin) in 1998. By 2010, it had added general contracting and construction management to its portfolio. Jostin’s decade-long relationship with 3CDC expanded in 2021 when it was hired to manage conversion of the Art Academy dormitory-style apartments into 10 condominiums that are now Academy Lofts on Vine Street in OTR.

Spaulding has worked for the international ﬁrm since 2008, when he was named general counsel. He became the top local executive in 2016 for the company that built such high-proﬁle venues as TQL Stadium and Great American Tower. It will move its downtown office into 3CDC’s Foundry across from Fountain Square.

Steigerwald began his career with Messer as a college intern in the 1980s. He worked his way from project engineer to President in 2018, then was named CEO in 2019. Its recent high-profile projects include the Critical Care Building at Cincinnati Children’s Medical Center and the Andrew J Brady ICON Music Center on The Banks.

Hometown: Ft. Mitchell Education: Marshall University (undergraduate), Northern Kentucky University (J.D.)

Hometown: Lawrenceburg, Indiana Education: Purdue University (undergraduate), Xavier University (MBA) What

Has your leadership approach changed because of the pandemic? We’ve maintained our commitment to put

has been the toughest challenge for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic? With more than

people over proﬁts. I believe all of our leadership styles have adapted to place the value of human empathy at the highest regard, as each of our pandemic experiences has been unique.

100 construction jobsites and varying owner and local jurisdictional requirements, we asked our project leaders to play a lead role in managing COVID protocols to keep our workers safe.

Hometown: Cincinnati Education: Bowling Green State

University (undergraduate)

7 2 CCIINNCCIINNNNAT ATIIM MAAGGAAZZIINNEE..CCOOM M CCIINNCCIINNNNAT ATII 330000 | | 20002 0 10

REAL TK SEECSTATE TION

Steve Steinman

Greg Williams

Tom Williams

CEO Sims-Lohman

AREA PRESIDENT M/I Homes

PRESIDENT AND CEO North American Properties

Steinman leads the family-owned distributor of cabinetry and fabricator of granite and quartz countertops that provides more than 70,000 products annually to the building industry. Beginning with the acquisition of cabinet companies Moellering Industries in the 1998 and Sims-Lohman in 2007, the company later bought two granite fabricators and now has seven manufacturing facilities, four distribution centers, and 21 showroom locations in six states. It expanded its Carthage headquarters in 2019 to house its sales team and a new showroom.

Williams has led the local market of the homebuilder founded in Columbus by Melvin and Irving Schottenstein in 1976. It renewed and expanded its Deerﬁeld Township office as the company’s sales, closings, and selling price increased during the housing boom. The company was the third-largest local homebuilder with more than $200 million in 2019 revenue on more than 450 housing starts.

Williams leads the family commercial real estate business that started in 1954. The company bought Newport on the Levee in 2018 and invested $100 million to transform the property into an entertainment, shopping, and office space destination that re-opened in May. Williams is Vice Chairman and a principal owner of the Reds and became a principal owner and board member of Skyline Chili to ensure the brand will remain privately owned. He is also co-founder of Nehemiah Manufacturing, a “second-chance” venture to create community development.

Hometown: Denver Education: Brigham Young University (undergraduate) Has your leadership approach changed because of the pandemic? Being honest and transparent about what’s happening to our business and how we plan to keep everyone safe through this process is a challenge that’s excited me, because you know you can make a positive difference every day.

Hometown: Cincinnati Education: Georgetown University

(undergraduate), University of Cincinnati (J.D.)

Powerful Leaders Inspire Growth and Transformation. Thanks for your leadership, Mike. HGC Group of Companies is now Huseman Group

www.husemangroup.com

C ICNICNICNINNAT N AT I 3I 0300 0| 0 | 2000201 CCIINNCCIINNNNAT ATIIM MAAGGAAZZIINNEE..CCOOM M 73

Index BY NAME

ANDREW AIELLO, TANK MICHAEL ALLEN, ALLEN.ASSOCIATES SCOTT ALTMAN, CINCINNATI BALLET JEFFREY ALUOTTO, HAMILTON COUNTY TIANAY AMAT, CINCINNATI PUBLIC SCHOOLS SCOTT ANDERSON, HBH HOLDINGS JEFFREY ANDERSON, JEFFREY R. ANDERSON REAL ESTATE MARK ANDERSON, PROMACH KIRK ANDREAE, CLARKE POWER SERVICES DEAN BACKSCHEIDER, BGR WILLIAM BAHL, BAHL & GAYNOR DAN BAKER, BAKER CONSTRUCTION ENTERPRISES TIMOTHY BALLINGER, GENERAL ELECTRIC CREDIT UNION JOHN BARRETT, WESTERN & SOUTHERN FINANCIAL GROUP PATTY BASTI, KPMG CLYDE BELL, CEI VISION PARTNERS JEFF BERDING, FC CINCINNATI JEFF BILLINGSLEY, DHL PETE BLACKSHAW, CINTRIFUSE RIC BOOTH, DUKE ENERGY CONVENTION CENTER ADAM BORTZ, TOWNE PROPERTIES TOM BRENNAN, SCHOOL OUTFITTERS PATTY BRISBEN, BRISBEN FOUNDATION MIKE BROWN, CINCINNATI BENGALS ARCHIE BROWN, FIRST FINANCIAL BANK ADAM BROWNING, GOLD MEDAL PRODUCTS OTTO BUDIG JR., BUDCO GROUP IRIS SIMPSON BUSH, FLYING PIG MARATHON DAN BUSKEN, BUSKEN BAKERY WILLIAM BUTLER, CORPOREX COMPANIES DOUG CAHILL, HILLMAN GROUP JULIE CALVERT, CINCINNATI USA CONVENTION & VISITORS BUREAU

49 55 21 49 31 39 65 39 13 39 5 65 5 55 55 31 21 13 40 21 65 13 49 22 5 40 40 22 14 66 40 22

GREGORY CRAWFORD, MIAMI UNIVERSITY LEE CRUME, NORTHERN KENTUCKY TRI-ED STEVE CUNTZ, BLUESTAR KENT DAILEY, RE/MAX VICTORY + AFFILIATES JOHN DANIS, DANIS BUILDING CONSTRUCTION ROGER DAVID, GSR BRANDS JEAN-ROBERT DE CAVEL, JR GROUP TONY DESJARDINS, GREY MIDWEST MICHAEL DEVER, PERFORMANCE AUTOMOTIVE BILL DEVILLE, HEALTH CAROUSEL BRAD DEVRIES, HOMESERVICES KENTUCKY (HUFF REALTY) ANDREW DEWITT, DEWEY’S TODD DICKSON, CHAMPION WINDOWS MARSHALL DOSKER, STRAUSS TROY JAMES DOWNTON, SHARONVILLE CONVENTION CENTER DAVID DREES, DREES HOMES DIANE EGBERS, LEADERSHIP EXCELLERATION RICHARD EISWERTH, CINCINNATI PUBLIC RADIO TIM ELSBROCK, FIFTH THIRD BANK CHRIS EVANS, BAREFOOT PROXIMITY DAVID FALK, BOCA RESTAURANT GROUP CRYSTAL FAULKNER, MCM CPAS & ADVISORS ALAN FERSHTMAN, KEATING MUETHING & KLEKAMP FERNANDO FIGUEROA, GATEWAY COMMUNITY COLLEGE MICHAEL FISHER, CINCINNATI CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL MEDICAL CENTER MARC FISHER, MAYERSON JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER DAVE FISKE, MERCY HEALTH CINCINNATI LEIGH FOX, CINCINNATI BELL CHRIS FROMAN, POMEROY JODI FRONCZEK, DENTAL CARE PLUS GROUP CHRISTOPHER GARTEN, SEVEN HILLS SCHOOL KAY GEIGER, PNC BANK

32 50 41 66 66 22 23 56 14 32 66 23 41 56 23 66 56 23 6 56 23 56 56 33 33 50 33 14 41 34 34 6

GREG CARMICHAEL, FIFTH THIRD BANK MICHAEL CARREL, ATRICURE BOB CASTELLINI, CINCINNATI REDS MIKE CASTRUCCI, MIKE CASTRUCCI AUTOMOTIVE JOSEPH CHILLO, THOMAS MORE UNIVERSITY CHRIS CICCHINELLI, PURE ROMANCE JAMES CLARK, LSI INDUSTRIES MIKE CLARK, PILOT CHEMICAL MARK CLEMENT, TRIHEALTH SARAH CLOSE, KELLER WILLIAMS ADVISORS REALTY KEN COHEN, COHEN RECYCLING JON COLEMAN, WESTIN CINCINNATI CRIS COLLINSWORTH, PRO FOOTBALL FOCUS GARREN COLVIN, ST. ELIZABETH HEALTHCARE JONATHAN COOPER, MASON CITY SCHOOLS BRENT COOPER, NORTHERN KENTUCKY CHAMBER RICHARD CORRADO, AIR TRANSPORT SERVICES GROUP JOHN CRANLEY, CITY OF CINCINNATI

6 31 22 14 32 14 40 40 32 66 14 22 41 32 32 50 41 50

DAVID GELWICKS, HICKMAN, WILLIAMS & CO. CHIP GERHARDT, GOVERNMENT STRATEGIES MONICA GERHARDT, NELSON WORLDWIDE MICHAEL GILBERT, ARISTECH SURFACES PAUL GOHR, CECO ENVIRONMENTAL GEORGE GOLDHOFF, HARD ROCK CASINO JEANNE GOLLIHER, CINCINNATI DEVELOPMENT FUND RICHARD GRAETER, GRAETER’S ICE CREAM MELVIN GRAVELY, TRIVERSITY CONSTRUCTION ADAM GREENBERG, TOPICZ BRIAN GRIFFIN, CINCINNATI AFL-CIO LABOR COUNCIL LOUIS GUTTMAN, HILLS PROPERTIES BRIAN HABEGGER, HABEGGER CORP. MICHAEL HABEL, BHDP JAMES HAGERTY, BARTLETT WEALTH MANAGEMENT DARRYL HALEY, METRO/SORTA ADAM HALL, FROST BROWN TODD COLLEEN HANYCZ, XAVIER UNIVERSITY

41 57 67 42 42 23 50 24 67 15 50 67 15 67 6 51 57 34

7 4 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M C I N C I N N AT I 3 0 0 | 2 0 2 1

Index BY NAME

RAY HARRIS, NEDERLANDER/HERITAGE BANK CENTER ANDREW HAWKING, TRUIST BANK ROBERT HAWKSLEY, FISCHER HOMES DEBORAH HAYES, THE CHRIST HOSPITAL GARY HEIMAN, STANDARD TEXTILE STEVE HIGHTOWER, HIGHTOWERS PETROLEUM BRIAN HODGETT, PROCTER & GAMBLE ROBERT HOFFER, DBL LAW COLLEEN HOUSTON, ARTWORKS ANDREW HOWELL, FEDERAL HOME LOAN BANK MIKE HUSEMAN, HGC GROUP JASON JACKMAN, JOHNSON INVESTMENT COUNSEL MATTHEW JESSUP, GRANT THORNTON STEVEN JOHNSTON, CINCINNATI FINANCIAL KEVIN JONES, HUNTINGTON BANK RONALD JOSEPH, JOSEPH AUTO GROUP JIM JURGENSEN II, JURGENSEN COMPANIES ELLEN KATZ, GREATER CINCINNATI FOUNDATION ERIC KEARNEY, AFRICAN AMERICAN CHAMBER OF CINC/NKY JACK KENNY, MERIDIAN BIOSCIENCE JOE KING, COLDWELL BANKER REALTY ALECIA KINTNER, ARTSWAVE GAIL KIST-KLINE, CHRIST COLLEGE OF NURSING & HEALTH SCIENCES CAMERON KITCHIN, CINCINNATI ART MUSEUM KIM KLOSTERMAN, KLOSTERMAN BAKING DAVE KLOTTER, TSC APPAREL BRIAN KOCHER, CASTELLINI GROUP EDDIE KOEN, URBAN LEAGUE MIKE KOONTZ, KINGS ISLAND ARTHUR KREMER, SHAREFAX CREDIT UNION LANCE KWASNIEWSKI, BELCAN JEFF LACKEY, CBTS

24 6 67 34 42 42 15 57 24 6 67 8 57 57 8 15 42 51 51 42 68 24 34 24 15 15 16 51 24 8 57 43

CLEMENT LUKEN JR., WOOD HERRON & EVANS MATT LUNKENHEIMER, HILTON NETHERLAND PLAZA HOTEL JEFF LYKINS, LYKINS ENERGY SOLUTIONS TONY MAAS, JTM FOOD GROUP JOHN MACTAGGART, FIELD AEROSPACE MILEN MAHADEVAN, 84.51 TIM MALONEY, HAILE FOUNDATION BOBBY MALY, MODEL GROUP ELIZABETH MANGAN, MILLER-VALENTINE CONSTRUCTION STEVE MARTENET, ANTHEM BLUE CROSS JONATHAN MARTIN, CINCINNATI SYMPHONY ALAN MARTIN, HUMANA NADER MASADEH, BUFFALO WINGS & RINGS THANE MAYNARD, CINCINNATI ZOO JASON MCCAW, BELFLEX STAFFING KEITH MCCLUSKEY, MCCLUSKEY AUTOMOTIVE GROUP MICHAEL MCCUEN, KEYBANK KEVIN MCDONNELL, SKYLINE CHILI CANDACE MCGRAW, CINCINNATI/NORTHERN KENTUCKY AIRPORT RODNEY MCMULLEN, KROGER CO. KEVIN MCNAMARA, CHEMED ERIC MEILSTRUP, LCNB BANK MARK MEINHARDT, STAR ONE REALTORS ADRIAN MELENDEZ, AMAZON AIR JILL MEYER, CINCINNATI USA REGIONAL CHAMBER JOSEPH MEYER, CITY OF COVINGTON D. LYNN MEYERS, ENSEMBLE THEATRE OF CINCINNATI MATT MILLER, LAKOTA LOCAL SCHOOLS BRITNEY RUBY MILLER, RUBY CULINARY VAIL MILLER JR., HEIDELBERG DISTRIBUTING CHRISTOPHER MILLIGAN, CINCINNATI OPERA GARY MITCHELL, DIVISIONS MAINTENANCE

58 25 16 16 43 59 52 68 68 59 26 35 26 26 58 16 9 26 52 16 17 9 68 17 52 52 26 35 26 17 27 68

JAY LAMBKE, GOVERNMENT ACQUISITIONS NATHANIEL LAMPLEY JR., VORYS, SATER, SEYMOUR & PEASE PETER LANDGREN, UC FOUNDATION GRETCHEN LANDRUM, NORTHERN KENTUCKY CONVENTION CENTER DOUG LANG, MEYER TOOL JOE LANNI, THUNDERDOME RESTAURANT GROUP MICHAEL LAROSA, LAROSA’S KIMM LAUTERBACH, REDI STEVE LEEPER, 3CDC GARY LINDGREN, CINCINNATI BUSINESS COMMITTEE BRAD LINDNER, UNITED DAIRY FARMERS CARL LINDNER III, AMERICAN FINANCIAL GROUP S. CRAIG LINDNER, AMERICAN FINANCIAL GROUP RICHARD LOFGREN, UC HEALTH STEVE LOFTIN, CINCINNATI ARTS ASSOCIATION PATRICK LONGO, HCDC SEAN LORING, TRUSTAFF BERYL LOVE, ENQUIRER MEDIA

43 58 51 25 43 25 25 51 68 52 16 58 58 34 25 52 58 25

WILLIAM MORGAN, JP MORGAN ASSET MANAGEMENT SHENAN MURPHY, COLLIERS INTERNATIONAL ROBERT MYERS, PHILLIPS EDISON SCOTT NELSON, COMEY & SHEPHERD DAN NEYER, NEYER PROPERTIES DEAN NICHOLAS, CINCINNATI HILLS CHRISTIAN ACADEMY TOM NIES, CINCOM SYSTEMS MOLLY NORTH, AL. NEYER KEN OAKS, TOTAL QUALITY LOGISTICS JEFF OSTERFELD, PENN STATION MIKE PARKS, RHINEGEIST BIMAL PATEL, ROLLING HILLS HOSPITALITY GUS PERDIKAKIS, GUS PERDIKAKIS ASSOCIATES BRIAN ISAAC PHILLIPS, CINCINNATI SHAKESPEARE COMPANY ELIZABETH PIERCE, CINCINNATI MUSEUM CENTER JOE PINTO, HYATT REGENCY NEVILLE PINTO, UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI ANDREA PIRONDINI, PRYSMIAN GROUP NORTH AMERICA

9 69 69 69 69 35 43 69 43 27 17 27 59 27 27 27 35 44

C I N C I N N AT I 3 0 0 | 2 0 2 1 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M 7 5

Index BY NAME

MONICA POSEY, CINCINNATI STATE MICHAEL PRESCOTT, U.S. BANK JIM PRICE, EMPOWER MEDIA JEREMY RABY, ERA REAL SOLUTIONS MARIBETH RAHE, FORT WASHINGTON INVESTMENT ADVISORS DANIEL RAJCZAK, TOTES-ISOTONER JON RAMEY, UBS WEALTH MANAGEMENT JAY RAMMES, BARNES DENNIG JOE RAVER, HILLENBRAND JACKIE REAU, GAME DAY COMMUNICATIONS ROBERT REICHERT, KENWOOD DEALER GROUP TIM REILLY, ST. XAVIER HIGH SCHOOL JOHN RICHARDSON, SUGARCREEK BETH ROBINSON, UPTOWN CONSORTIUM BLAKE ROBISON, CINCINNATI PLAYHOUSE IN PARK KERRY ROE, CLARK SCHAEFER HACKETT RON ROSENBECK, REPUBLIC WIRE RICK ROSS, SUMMIT FUNDING GROUP JAKE ROUSE, BRAXTON BREWING WILLIAM RUMPKE JR., RUMPKE WASTE & RECYCLING REGINA CARSWELL RUSSO, RRIGHT NOW COMMUNICATIONS MARK RYAN, MERRILL LYNCH WEALTH MANAGEMENT CARL SATTERWHITE, RCF GROUP TODD SCHILD, THOMPSON HINE TODD SCHNEIDER, CINTAS DENNIS SCHNURR, ARCHDIOCESE OF CINCINNATI MATTHEW SCHOTTELKOTTE, GBBN KEVIN SCHUTTE, CBRE ROBERT SCHUTTER, CONEY ISLAND/LEISURE SYSTEMS TOM SEDLER, HOME CITY ICE LARRY SHEAKLEY, SHEAKLEY ROBIN SHEAKLEY, SIBCY CLINE

35 10 59 69 10 17 10 59 44 59 17 35 44 53 28 60 44 10 18 18 60 10 18 60 18 53 70 70 28 18 60 70

DIANE SURETTE, BURKE INC. ADRYANNA SUTHERLAND, GYRO DANIEL SUTTON, KEMBA CREDIT UNION MARY SVITKOVICH, FIDELITY INVESTMENTS JACOB SWEENEY, JAKE SWEENEY AUTOMOTIVE ADAM SYMSON, E.W. SCRIPPS CO. DAVID TAYLOR, PROCTER & GAMBLE BRIAN TOME, CROSSROADS CHURCH SARAH TOMES, LPK AUGUST TROENDLE, MEDPACE HOLDINGS GREG TUCKER, PROAMPAC BARBARA TURNER, OHIO NATIONAL ASHISH VAIDYA, NORTHERN KENTUCKY UNIVERSITY TONY VASCONCELLOS, FRISCH’S RESTAURANTS JEREMY VAUGHAN, ERNST & YOUNG NICK VEHR, VEHR COMMUNICATIONS MIKE VENERABLE, CINCYTECH MATT VENTURA, INTERGRITY EXPRESS LOGISTICS PETE VENTURA, INTERGRITY EXPRESS LOGISTICS PAUL VERST, VERST LOGISTICS RAUL VILLAR JR., PAYCOR GEORGE VINCENT, DINSMORE & SHOHL NIGEL VINECOMBE, MULTI-COLOR CORP. MAHENDRA VORA, VORA VENTURES DAVID WALLACE, HERITAGE BANK MELISSA WASSON, PWC MOIRA WEIR, UNITED WAY OF GREATER CINCINNATI JEFF WELSH, DUBOIS CHEMICALS STEPHEN WEST, AHEAD/ROUNDTOWER TECHNOLOGIES GREG WILLIAMS, M/I HOMES H. JAMES WILLIAMS, MOUNT ST. JOSEPH UNIVERSITY TOM WILLIAMS, NORTH AMERICAN PROPERTIES

61 61 11 11 19 29 19 53 61 36 45 61 36 29 61 61 45 45 45 45 62 62 46 46 11 62 53 46 47 73 36 73

STEVE SHIFMAN, MICHELMAN JAY SIGLER, CINFED CREDIT UNION JOHN SLATTERY, GE AVIATION ROBERT SLATTERY, SLATTS GROUP MIKE SMITH, MUSIC & EVENT MANAGEMENT INC. ALBERT SMITHERMAN, JOSTIN CONSTRUCTION JAMES SOWAR, DELOITTE GERALD SPARKMAN, D.E. FOXX & ASSOCIATES DAVID SPAULDING, TURNER CONSTRUCTION AMY SPILLER, DUKE ENERGY MICHAEL STAGNARO, STAGNARO DISTRIBUTING JAMES STAHL JR., CBT JAMES STEGER, INTEGRITY EXPRESS LOGISTICS TIM STEIGERWALD, MESSER CONSTRUCTION STEVE STEINMAN, SIMS-LOHMAN LARRY STODDARD, RELADYNE MIKE STUART, MADTREE BREWING CRAIG SUMEREL, AAA BOB SUMEREL

44 10 44 18 28 72 60 60 72 19 19 45 45 72 73 45 19 19

JOE WILLKE, NIELSEN CONSUMER NEUROSCIENCE RICH WILSON, SUMMIT COUNTRY DAY RONALD WITTEKIND, HAWKSTONE ASSOCIATES JAY WOFFINGTON, CINCINNATI BEVERAGE CO. CHIP WOOD, TIRE DISCOUNTERS ALLEN WOODS, MORTAR JEFF WYLER, JEFF WYLER AUTOMOTIVE FAMILY WILLIAM YUNG, COLUMBIA SUSSEX MARY ZALLA, LANDOR CINCINNATI ROB ZIMMERMAN, CINCINNATI COUNTRY DAY JAMES ZIMMERMAN, TAFT STETTINIUS & HOLLISTER

63 37 47 20 20 53 20 29 63 37 63

7 6 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M C I N C I N N AT I 3 0 0 | 2 0 2 1

Index BY COMPANY

3CDC, STEVE LEEPER 84.51, MILEN MAHADEVAN AAA BOB SUMEREL, CRAIG SUMEREL AFRICAN AMERICAN CHAMBER OF CINC/NKY, ERIC KEARNEY AHEAD/ROUNDTOWER TECHNOLOGIES, STEPHEN WEST AIR TRANSPORT SERVICES GROUP, RICHARD CORRADO AL. NEYER, MOLLY NORTH ALLEN.ASSOCIATES, MICHAEL ALLEN AMAZON AIR, ADRIAN MELENDEZ AMERICAN FINANCIAL GROUP, CARL LINDNER III AMERICAN FINANCIAL GROUP, S. CRAIG LINDNER ANTHEM BLUE CROSS, STEVE MARTENET ARCHDIOCESE OF CINCINNATI, DENNIS SCHNURR ARISTECH SURFACES, MICHAEL GILBERT ARTSWAVE, ALECIA KINTNER ARTWORKS, COLLEEN HOUSTON ATRICURE, MICHAEL CARREL BAHL & GAYNOR, WILLIAM BAHL BAKER CONSTRUCTION ENTERPRISES, DAN BAKER BAREFOOT PROXIMITY, CHRIS EVANS BARNES DENNIG, JAY RAMMES BARTLETT WEALTH MANAGEMENT, JAMES HAGERTY BELCAN, LANCE KWASNIEWSKI BELFLEX STAFFING, JASON MCCAW BGR, DEAN BACKSCHEIDER BHDP, MICHAEL HABEL BLUESTAR, STEVE CUNTZ BOCA RESTAURANT GROUP, DAVID FALK BRAXTON BREWING, JAKE ROUSE BRISBEN FOUNDATION, PATTY BRISBEN BUDCO GROUP, OTTO BUDIG JR. BUFFALO WINGS & RINGS, NADER MASADEH

68 59 19 51 47 41 69 55 17 58 58 59 53 42 24 24 31 5 65 56 59 6 57 58 39 67 41 23 18 49 40 26

CINCINNATI BEVERAGE CO., JAY WOFFINGTON CINCINNATI BUSINESS COMMITTEE, GARY LINDGREN CINCINNATI CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL MEDICAL CENTER, MICHAEL FISHER CINCINNATI COUNTRY DAY, ROBERT ZIMMERMAN CINCINNATI DEVELOPMENT FUND, JEANNE GOLLIHER CINCINNATI FINANCIAL, STEVEN JOHNSTON CINCINNATI HILLS CHRISTIAN ACADEMY, DEAN NICHOLAS CINCINNATI MUSEUM CENTER, ELIZABETH PIERCE CINCINNATI OPERA, CHRISTOPHER MILLIGAN CINCINNATI PLAYHOUSE IN PARK, BLAKE ROBISON CINCINNATI PUBLIC RADIO, RICHARD EISWERTH CINCINNATI PUBLIC SCHOOLS, TIANAY AMAT CINCINNATI REDS, BOB CASTELLINI CINCINNATI SHAKESPEARE COMPANY, BRIAN ISAAC PHILLIPS CINCINNATI STATE, MONICA POSEY CINCINNATI SYMPHONY, JONATHAN MARTIN CINCINNATI USA CONVENTION & VISITORS BUREAU, JULIE CALVERT CINCINNATI USA REGIONAL CHAMBER, JILL MEYER CINCINNATI ZOO, THANE MAYNARD CINCINNATI/NORTHERN KENTUCKY AIRPORT, CANDACE MCGRAW CINCOM SYSTEMS, TOM NIES CINCYTECH, MIKE VENERABLE CINFED CREDIT UNION, JAY SIGLER CINTAS, TODD SCHNEIDER CINTRIFUSE, PETE BLACKSHAW CITY OF CINCINNATI, JOHN CRANLEY CITY OF COVINGTON, JOSEPH MEYER CLARK SCHAEFER HACKETT, KERRY ROE CLARKE POWER SERVICES, KIRK ANDREAE COHEN RECYCLING, KEN COHEN COLDWELL BANKER REALTY, JOE KING COLLIERS INTERNATIONAL, SHENAN MURPHY

20 52 33 37 50 57 35 27 27 28 23 31 22 27 35 26 22 52 26 52 43 45 10 18 40 50 52 60 13 14 68 69

BURKE INC., DIANE SURETTE BUSKEN BAKERY, DAN BUSKEN CASTELLINI GROUP, BRIAN KOCHER CBRE, KEVIN SCHUTTE CBT, JAMES STAHL JR. CBTS, JEFF LACKEY CECO ENVIRONMENTAL, PAUL GOHR CEI VISION PARTNERS, CLYDE BELL CHAMPION WINDOWS, TODD DICKSON CHEMED, KEVIN MCNAMARA CHRIST COLLEGE OF NURSING & HEALTH SCIENCES, GAIL KIST-KLINE CHRIST HOSPITAL, DEBORAH HAYES CINCINNATI AFL-CIO LABOR COUNCIL, BRIAN GRIFFIN CINCINNATI ART MUSEUM, CAMERON KITCHIN CINCINNATI ARTS ASSOCIATION, STEVE LOFTIN CINCINNATI BALLET, SCOTT ALTMAN CINCINNATI BELL, LEIGH FOX CINCINNATI BENGALS, MIKE BROWN

61 14 16 70 45 43 42 31 41 17 34 34 50 24 25 21 14 22

COLUMBIA SUSSEX, WILLIAM YUNG COMEY & SHEPHERD, SCOTT NELSON CONEY ISLAND/LEISURE SYSTEMS, ROBERT SCHUTTER CORPOREX COMPANIES, WILLIAM BUTLER CROSSROADS CHURCH, BRIAN TOME D.E. FOXX & ASSOCIATES, GERALD SPARKMAN DANIS BUILDING CONSTRUCTION, JOHN DANIS DBL LAW, ROBERT HOFFER DELOITTE, JAMES SOWAR DENTAL CARE PLUS GROUP, JODI FRONCZEK DEWEY’S, ANDREW DEWITT DHL, JEFF BILLINGSLEY DINSMORE & SHOHL, GEORGE VINCENT DIVISIONS MAINTENANCE, GARY MITCHELL DREES CO., DAVID DREES DUBOIS CHEMICALS, JEFF WELSH DUKE ENERGY, AMY SPILLER DUKE ENERGY CONVENTION CENTER, RIC BOOTH

29 69 28 66 53 60 66 57 60 34 23 13 62 68 66 46 19 21

C I N C I N N AT I 3 0 0 | 2 0 2 1 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M 7 7

Index BY COMPANY

E.W. SCRIPPS CO., ADAM SYMSON EMPOWER MEDIA, JIM PRICE ENQUIRER MEDIA, BERYL LOVE ENSEMBLE THEATRE OF CINCINNATI, D. LYNN MEYERS ERA REAL SOLUTIONS, JEREMY RABY ERNST & YOUNG, JEREMY VAUGHAN FC CINCINNATI, JEFF BERDING FEDERAL HOME LOAN BANK, ANDREW HOWELL FIDELITY INVESTMENTS, MARY SVITKOVICH FIELD AEROSPACE, JOHN MACTAGGART FIFTH THIRD BANK, GREG CARMICHAEL FIFTH THIRD BANK, TIM ELSBROCK FIRST FINANCIAL BANK, ARCHIE BROWN FISCHER HOMES, ROBERT HAWKSLEY FLYING PIG MARATHON, IRIS SIMPSON BUSH FORT WASHINGTON INVESTMENT ADVISORS, MARIBETH RAHE FRISCH’S RESTAURANTS, TONY VASCONCELLOS FROST BROWN TODD, ADAM HALL GAME DAY COMMUNICATIONS, JACKIE REAU GATEWAY COMMUNITY COLLEGE, FERNANDO FIGUEROA GBBN, MATTHEW SCHOTTELKOTTE GE AVIATION, JOHN SLATTERY GENERAL ELECTRIC CREDIT UNION, TIMOTHY BALLINGER GOLD MEDAL PRODUCTS, ADAM BROWNING GOVERNMENT ACQUISITIONS, JAY LAMBKE GOVERNMENT STRATEGIES, CHIP GERHARDT GRAETER’S ICE CREAM, RICHARD GRAETER GRANT THORNTON, MATTHEW JESSUP GREATER CINCINNATI FOUNDATION, ELLEN KATZ GREY MIDWEST, TONY DESJARDINS GSR BRANDS, ROGER DAVID GUS PERDIKAKIS ASSOCIATES, GUS PERDIKAKIS

29 59 25 26 69 61 21 6 11 43 6 6 5 67 22 10 29 57 59 33 70 44 5 40 43 57 24 57 51 56 22 59

HOME CITY ICE, TOM SEDLER HOMESERVICES KENTUCKY (HUFF REALTY), BRAD DEVRIES HUMANA, ALAN MARTIN HUNTINGTON BANK, KEVIN JONES HYATT REGENCY, JOE PINTO INTEGRITY EXPRESS LOGISTICS, VENTURA, VENTURA, STEGER JAKE SWEENEY AUTOMOTIVE, JACOB SWEENEY JEFF WYLER AUTOMOTIVE FAMILY, JEFF WYLER JEFFREY R. ANDERSON REAL ESTATE, JEFFREY ANDERSON JOHNSON INVESTMENT COUNSEL, JASON JACKMAN JOSEPH AUTO GROUP, RONALD JOSEPH JOSTIN CONSTRUCTION, ALBERT SMITHERMAN JP MORGAN ASSET MANAGEMENT, WILLIAM MORGAN JR GROUP, JEAN-ROBERT DE CAVEL JTM FOOD GROUP, TONY MAAS JURGENSEN COMPANIES, JIM JURGENSEN II KEATING MUETHING & KLEKAMP, ALAN FERSHTMAN KELLER WILLIAMS ADVISORS REALTY, SARAH CLOSE KEMBA CREDIT UNION, DANIEL SUTTON KENWOOD DEALER GROUP, ROBERT REICHERT KEYBANK, MICHAEL MCCUEN KINGS ISLAND, MIKE KOONTZ KLOSTERMAN BAKING, KIM KLOSTERMAN KPMG, PATTY BASTI KROGER CO., RODNEY MCMULLEN LAKOTA LOCAL SCHOOLS, MATT MILLER LANDOR CINCINNATI, MARY ZALLA LAROSA’S, MICHAEL LAROSA LCNB BANK, ERIC MEILSTRUP LEADERSHIP EXCELLERATION, DIANE EGBERS LPK, SARAH TOMES LSI INDUSTRIES, JAMES CLARK

18 66 35 8 27 45 19 20 65 8 15 72 9 23 16 42 56 66 11 17 9 24 15 55 16 35 63 25 9 56 61 40

GYRO, ADRYANNA SUTHERLAND HABEGGER CORP., BRIAN HABEGGER HAILE FOUNDATION, TIM MALONEY HAMILTON COUNTY, JEFFREY ALUOTTO HARD ROCK CASINO, GEORGE GOLDHOFF HAWKSTONE ASSOCIATES, RONALD WITTEKIND HBH HOLDINGS, SCOTT ANDERSON HCDC, PATRICK LONGO HEALTH CAROUSEL, BILL DEVILLE HEIDELBERG DISTRIBUTING, VAIL MILLER JR. HERITAGE BANK, DAVID WALLACE HGC GROUP, MIKE HUSEMAN HICKMAN, WILLIAMS & CO., DAVID GELWICKS HIGHTOWERS PETROLEUM, STEVE HIGHTOWER HILLENBRAND, JOE RAVER HILLMAN GROUP, DOUG CAHILL HILLS PROPERTIES, LOUIS GUTTMAN HILTON NETHERLAND PLAZA HOTEL, MATT LUNKENHEIMER

61 15 52 49 23 47 39 52 32 17 11 67 41 42 44 40 67 25

LYKINS ENERGY SOLUTIONS, JEFF LYKINS M/I HOMES, GREG WILLIAMS MADTREE BREWING, MIKE STUART MASON CITY SCHOOLS, JONATHAN COOPER MAYERSON JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER, MARC FISHER MCCLUSKEY AUTOMOTIVE GROUP, KEITH MCCLUSKEY MCM CPAS & ADVISORS, CRYSTAL FAULKNER MEDPACE HOLDINGS, AUGUST TROENDLE MERCY HEALTH CINCINNATI, DAVE FISKE MERIDIAN BIOSCIENCE, JACK KENNY MERRILL LYNCH WEALTH MANAGEMENT, MARK RYAN MESSER CONSTRUCTION, TIM STEIGERWALD METRO/SORTA, DARRYL HALEY MEYER TOOL, DOUG LANG MIAMI UNIVERSITY, GREGORY CRAWFORD MICHELMAN, STEVE SHIFMAN MIKE CASTRUCCI AUTOMOTIVE, MIKE CASTRUCCI MILLER-VALENTINE CONSTRUCTION, ELIZABETH MANGAN

16 73 19 32 50 16 56 36 33 42 10 72 51 43 32 44 14 68

7 8 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M C I N C I N N AT I 3 0 0 | 2 0 2 1

Index BY COMPANY

MODEL GROUP, BOBBY MALY MORTAR, ALLEN WOODS MOUNT ST. JOSEPH UNIVERSITY, H. JAMES WILLIAMS MULTI-COLOR CORP., NIGEL VINECOMBE MUSIC & EVENT MANAGEMENT INC., MIKE SMITH NEDERLANDER/HERITAGE BANK CENTER, RAY HARRIS NELSON WORLDWIDE, MONICA GERHARDT NEYER PROPERTIES, DAN NEYER NIELSEN CONSUMER NEUROSCIENCE, JOE WILLKE NORTH AMERICAN PROPERTIES, TOM WILLIAMS NORTHERN KENTUCKY CHAMBER, BRENT COOPER NORTHERN KENTUCKY CONVENTION CENTER, GRETCHEN LANDRUM NORTHERN KENTUCKY TRI-ED, LEE CRUME NORTHERN KENTUCKY UNIVERSITY, ASHISH VAIDYA OHIO NATIONAL, BARBARA TURNER PAYCOR, RAUL VILLAR JR. PENN STATION, JEFF OSTERFELD PERFORMANCE AUTOMOTIVE, MICHAEL DEVER PHILLIPS EDISON, ROBERT MYERS PILOT CHEMICAL, MIKE CLARK PNC BANK, KAY GEIGER POMEROY, CHRIS FROMAN PRO FOOTBALL FOCUS, CRIS COLLINSWORTH PROAMPAC, GREG TUCKER PROCTER & GAMBLE, BRIAN HODGETT PROCTER & GAMBLE, DAVID TAYLOR PROMACH, MARK ANDERSON PRYSMIAN GROUP NORTH AMERICA, ANDREA PIRONDINI PURE ROMANCE, CHRIS CICCHINELLI PWC, MELISSA WASSON RCF GROUP, CARL SATTERWHITE RE/MAX VICTORY + AFFILIATES, KENT DAILEY

68 53 36 46 28 24 67 69 63 73 50 25 50 36 61 62 27 14 69 40 6 41 41 45 15 19 39 44 14 62 18 66

ST. XAVIER HIGH SCHOOL, TIM REILLY STAGNARO DISTRIBUTING, MICHAEL STAGNARO STANDARD TEXTILE, GARY HEIMAN STAR ONE REALTORS, MARK MEINHARDT STRAUSS TROY, MARSHALL DOSKER SUGARCREEK, JOHN RICHARDSON SUMMIT COUNTRY DAY, RICH WILSON SUMMIT FUNDING GROUP, RICK ROSS TAFT STETTINIUS & HOLLISTER, JAMES ZIMMERMAN TANK, ANDREW AIELLO THOMAS MORE UNIVERSITY, JOSEPH CHILLO THOMPSON HINE, TODD SCHILD THUNDERDOME RESTAURANT GROUP, JOE LANNI TIRE DISCOUNTERS, CHIP WOOD TOPICZ, ADAM GREENBERG TOTAL QUALITY LOGISTICS, KEN OAKS TOTES-ISOTONER, DANIEL RAJCZAK TOWNE PROPERTIES, ADAM BORTZ TRIHEALTH, MARK CLEMENT TRIVERSITY CONSTRUCTION, MELVIN GRAVELY TRUIST BANK, ANDREW HAWKING TRUSTAFF, SEAN LORING TSC APPAREL, DAVE KLOTTER TURNER CONSTRUCTION, DAVID SPAULDING U.S. BANK, MICHAEL PRESCOTT UBS WEALTH MANAGEMENT, JON RAMEY UC FOUNDATION, PETER LANDGREN UC HEALTH, RICHARD LOFGREN UNITED DAIRY FARMERS, BRAD LINDNER UNITED WAY OF GREATER CINCINNATI, MOIRA WEIR UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI, NEVILLE PINTO UPTOWN CONSORTIUM, BETH ROBINSON

35 19 42 68 56 44 37 10 63 49 32 60 25 20 15 43 17 65 32 67 6 58 15 72 10 10 51 34 16 53 35 53

REDI, KIMM LAUTERBACH RELADYNE, LARRY STODDARD REPUBLIC WIRE, RON ROSENBECK RHINEGEIST, MIKE PARKS ROLLING HILLS HOSPITALITY, BIMAL PATEL RRIGHT NOW COMMUNICATIONS, REGINA CARSWELL RUSSO RUBY CULINARY, BRITNEY RUBY MILLER RUMPKE WASTE & RECYCLING, WILLIAM RUMPKE JR. SCHOOL OUTFITTERS, TOM BRENNAN SEVEN HILLS SCHOOL, CHRISTOPHER GARTEN SHAREFAX CREDIT UNION, ARTHUR KREMER SHARONVILLE CONVENTION CENTER, JAMES DOWNTON SHEAKLEY, LARRY SHEAKLEY SIBCY CLINE, ROBIN SHEAKLEY SIMS-LOHMAN, STEVE STEINMAN SKYLINE CHILI, KEVIN MCDONNELL SLATTS GROUP, ROBERT SLATTERY ST. ELIZABETH HEALTHCARE, GARREN COLVIN

51 45 44 17 27 60 26 18 13 34 8 23 60 70 73 26 18 32

URBAN LEAGUE, EDDIE KOEN VEHR COMMUNICATIONS, NICK VEHR VERST LOGISTICS, PAUL VERST VORA VENTURES, MAHENDRA VORA VORYS, SATER, SEYMOUR & PEASE, NATHANIEL LAMPLEY JR. WESTERN & SOUTHERN FINANCIAL GROUP, JOHN BARRETT WESTIN CINCINNATI, JON COLEMAN WOOD HERRON & EVANS, CLEMENT LUKEN JR. XAVIER UNIVERSITY, COLLEEN HANYCZ

51 61 45 46 58 55 22 58 34

C I N C I N N AT I 3 0 0 | 2 0 2 1 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M 7 9

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