24 minute read
CULTURE & LEISURE
Scott Altman
PRESIDENT AND CEO Cincinnati Ballet
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.
Hometown: New York City Education: UNY Purchase (undergraduate), Manhattan School of Music (master’s)
Jeff Berding
PRESIDENT AND GENERAL MANAGER FC Cincinnati
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.
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.
Ric Booth
GENERAL MANAGER Duke Energy Convention Center
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: 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.
Mike Brown
PRESIDENT Cincinnati Bengals
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.
Hometown: Massillon, Ohio Education: Dartmouth College (undergraduate), Harvard University (J.D.)
Bob Castellini
CEO Cincinnati Reds
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.
Hometown: Cincinnati Education: Georgetown University (undergraduate), University of Pennsylvania (MBA)
Iris Simpson Bush
PRESIDENT AND CEO Flying Pig Marathon
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.
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.
Jon Coleman
GENERAL MANAGER Westin Hotel
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.
Julie Calvert
PRESIDENT AND CEO Cincinnati USA Convention & Visitors Bureau
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.
Roger David
PRESIDENT AND CEO GSR Brands
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.
Jean-Robert de Cavel
CHEF AND OWNER JR Group
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.
Hometown: Lille, France
Andrew DeWitt
EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN Dewey’s
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.
James Downton
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Sharonville Convention Center
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: Ft. Mitchell Education: Northern Kentucky University (undergraduate)
Richard Eiswerth
PRESIDENT, GENERAL MANAGER, AND CEO Cincinnati Public Radio
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.
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.
David Falk
CHEF AND OWNER Boca Restaurant Group
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.
George Goldhoff
PRESIDENT Hard Rock Casino
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: 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.
Richard Graeter
PRESIDENT AND CEO Graeter’s Ice Cream
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.
Hometown: Cincinnati
Ray Harris
CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER Nederlander/Heritage Bank Center
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.
Hometown: Indian River, Michigan Education: Walsh College (undergraduate)
Colleen Houston
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR AND CEO ArtWorks
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.
Alecia Kintner
PRESIDENT AND CEO ArtsWave
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.
Hometown: Los Angeles Education: University of California–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.
Cameron Kitchin
DIRECTOR Cincinnati Art Museum
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.
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 humanity 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.
Mike Koontz
VICE PRESIDENT AND GENERAL MANAGER Kings Island
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.
Gretchen Landrum
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.
Joe Lanni
CEO Thunderdome Restaurant Group
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.
Education: Cornell University (undergraduate)
Michael LaRosa
CEO LaRosa’s
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.
Hometown: Cincinnati
Steve Loftin
PRESIDENT Cincinnati Arts Association
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.
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Beryl Love
EXECUTIVE EDITOR AND MARKET LEADER Enquirer Media
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.
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.
Matt Lunkenheimer
GENERAL MANAGER Hilton Cincinnati Netherland Plaza
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.
Kevin McDonnell
PRESIDENT CEO Skyline Chili
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.
Jonathan Martin
PRESIDENT Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
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.
Thane Maynard
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden
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.
Hometown: Winter Park, Florida Education: Rollins College (undergraduate), University of Michigan (master’s)
D. Lynn Meyers
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.
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.
Nader Masadeh
PRESIDENT AND CEO Buffalo Wings & Rings
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: 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.
Britney Ruby Miller
CEO Ruby Culinary
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: 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.
Christopher Milligan
GENERAL DIRECTOR AND CEO Cincinnati Opera
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.
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
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.
Hometown: 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 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.
Jeff Osterfeld
CEO Penn Station
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.
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
PRESIDENT AND CEO Cincinnati Museum Center
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.
Hometown: Mansfield, Ohio Education: Miami University (undergraduate), George Washington University (master’s)
Bimal Patel
CEO Rolling Hills Hospitality
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: 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
GENERAL MANAGER Hyatt Regency Cincinnati
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.
Blake Robison
PRODUCING ARTISTIC DIRECTOR Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park
Robison, who replaced the legendary Ed Stern in 2012, has continued the organization’s commitment to new and diverse programming and 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.
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.
Rob Schutter
PRESIDENT Coney Island
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.
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.
Mike Smith
CEO Music and Event Management, Inc.
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.
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Adam Symson
PRESIDENT AND CEO E.W. Scripps Co.
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.
Hometown: Los Angeles Education: University of California–Los Angeles (undergraduate) What has been the toughest challenge for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic? Thanks to the flexibility, creativity, 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.
Tony Vasconcellos
PRESIDENT AND CEO E.W. Scripps Co.
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.
Education: Miami University (undergraduate)
William Yung
PRESIDENT AND CEO Columbia Sussex
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.
