Realm Winter 2023 - The Journal for Queen City CEOs

LEARNING TO

The region’s economy thrives when college students come to school here and stay after graduation.

Love Cincinnati

YOUR CHAMBER YOUR NETWORK

REDUCE YOUR COMPANY’S OPERATING COSTS TAKE ADVANTAGE OF GROUP BUYING POWER Being a member of the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber gives you access to valuable Cost Saving Programs designed to help your business thrive even in seasons of unfamiliarity. As your business changes and adapts with the times, we recognize the need our members have for this network of resources now more than ever.

WORKERS’ COMP

HEALTH INSURANCE ChamberHealth™ partnered with Medical Mutual can save you money on health benefits.

REVENUE RECOVERY Helping businesses of all sizes get federal incentives and rebates they are entitled to through Business Group Resources.

OFFICE SUPPLIES

ChamberComp™ saves you up to 53% on Group Rating, 62% or more on Group Retrospective Rating through Sheakley.

Everyone in your organization is eligible to save up to 55% off nearly every item in stock at Office Depot/Office Max.

ENERGY

CREDIT CARD PROCESSING

Understand, manage, and reduce your organization's energy costs with Good Energy.

SAFETY COUNCIL The Greater Cincinnati Safety Council is one of the largest in the region and offers opportunities for reduced workers’ comp premiums via the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation.

Save up to 40% on your credit card and debit card payment processing with i3 Commerce Technology.

TELECOM & IT SERVICES Save up to 35% on voice, network, cloud and cybersecurity services with Advanced Technology Consulting.

cincinnatichamber.com/save

get up and

GO METRO

shopping TO

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And with 24/7 service on seven of its most popular routes, expanded weekend service, more frequency & crosstown routes, and new buses with free Wi-Fi and charging ports, Metro makes it easy to leave your car at home and let the good times roll!

get up and

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DRAWING UP NTOWN’S NEW TION DISTRICT

A joint partnership between Cincinnati Magazine and the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber, Realm is a quarterly print publication designed to connect area executives with each other and with news, resources, and opportunities designed to help them succeed. Reserve your space today.

TO ADVERTISE: advertise@cincinnatimagazine.com

TABLE OF CONTENTS VOL.4, NO.4

CINCINNATI USA REGIONAL CHAMBER 04 LETTER FROM BRENDON CULL 08 BY THE NUMBERS

Job growth across the region is supercharged by these public and private companies.

THE JUMP

PG. 16 PG. 32

10 ECONOMIC

16 FOOD &

DRAWING US DOWNTOWN

A NEW CEO IS ON TAP

“Meet Me Downtown” is reigniting Cincinnati’s economic and cultural vibrancy in the urban core.

Rhinegeist names Adam Bankovich CEO and looks to new products and brand growth in 2024.

12 ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

18 EDUCATION TEACHING FOR IMPACT

BREWING UP HELP FOR BUSINESSES

Marco Pagani discusses his vision for Xavier University business school students in his first year as Dean.

DEVELOPMENT

Storefronts to the Forefront grants support Goshen and other business districts.

BEVERAGE

CHIEF BUSINESS OFFICER Kate Ward TRAFFIC MANAGER Tracey Brachle BOARD CHAIR Candace McGraw CEO, Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport CHAMBER OFFICE 3 E. Fourth St. Cincinnati, OH 45202 (513) 579-3100 All contents © 2023 Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber. The contents cannot be reproduced in any manner, whole or in part, without written permission from the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber.

DEEP DIVES 24

14 BRANDING LPK DOUBLES DOWN ON B2C

PRESIDENT AND CEO Brendon Cull

FROM THE PUBLISHERS OF

LEARNING TO LOVE CINCINNATI Why students come to the region for college, why they stay after graduation, and what it all means for the local economy.

The 40-year-old branding firm reinvents its agency model.

PG. 40

32

A TALENT FOR BUILDING BUSINESSES Chief executives at four fast-growing private companies discuss how “killer talent” has allowed them to scale up successfully.

40

DIVERSE CULTURAL AND ECONOMIC IMPACTS 50 ASK ME ABOUT

Get to know Kai Lewars of Kaiker Development and Construction, Richard Eiswerth of Cincinnati Public Radio, and Rob Zimmerman of Cincinnati Country Day School.

52 PHOTO ESSAY: AGLAMESIS’ NEW CHOCOLATE FACTORY Under a third generation of ownership, the ice cream and sweets business expands capacity while maintaining family traditions.

Artists and arts leaders join with corporate, government, and individual donors to keep Cincinnati on the map as a major U.S. artsfocused city.

44

A DIFFERENT SPIN ON COUNTY GOVERNMENT

PUBLISHER Ivy Bayer EDITOR-IN-CHIEF John Fox DIRECTOR OF EDITORIAL OPERATIONS Amanda Boyd Walters ASSOCIATE EDITOR Lauren Fisher DESIGN DIRECTOR Brittany Dexter ART DIRECTORS Carlie Burton, Jessica Dunham, Emi Villavicencio ADVERTISING DESIGNER Sophie Kallis SENIOR ACCOUNT MANAGERS Maggie Goecke, Joe Hoffecker, Julie Poyer SENIOR MANAGER, SPONSORSHIP SALES Chris Ohmer ACCOUNT REPRESENTATIVE Laura Bowling PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Vu Luong EDITORIAL AND ADVERTISING Email cmletters@cincinnatimagazine.com Website cincinnatimagazine.com Phone (513) 421-4300 Subscriptions (800) 846-4333

Regional leaders get a first-hand look at County Executive systems in Cuyahoga and Summit counties.

O N T H E C O V E R : G R I G G S A N D S I S K P H O T O G R A P H S BY K E V I N J . WAT K I N S

P H O T O G R A P H S ( T O P ) C O U R T E SY R H I N E G E I S T / ( M I D D L E ) C O U R T E SY D M G / ( B O T T O M ) C O U R T E SY R O M A C

WINTER 2023 REALM 3

WELCOME

appy 2024! Later this month, the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber will launch our new strategic framework focusing on growth. We’ll prioritize growing our population, growing our economy, and growing cultural vibrancy—with the foundation of it all being our effort to grow a strong business community.

In this issue, you’ll read about the kind of growth we’re discussing. We have a story on how university talent, especially students coming to college here from out of town and out of the country, presents a great opportunity for Cincinnati to grow its population. You’ll read about four fast-growing companies helping to define our new economy. And you’ll be immersed in the region’s diverse arts organizations, thanks to a phenomenal story about the Black and Brown artists and creators on the rise here.

A stronger business community looks to the future, and you’ll read how a group of business leaders traveled north to Cleveland and Akron to study new models of county government. You’ll also get hungry viewing the West End’s new chocolate factory from Aglamesis Bros.

I hope 2024 brings your business, your family, and your friends tremendous joy and sweet success. We’ll be excited to support you along the road.

BRENDON CULL BCull@cincinnatichamber.com

4 REALM WINTER 2023

P H O T O G R A P H BY C H R I S V O N H O L L E

YOURSELF

CINCY

WHERE BUSINESS REIGNS

On the banks of the Ohio River where Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana meet, the Cincinnati region is the place where talent thrives and business success happens. Our unique combination of economic diversity, global connectivity, a central location, logistical advantages, a talented workforce, sustainability efforts and an excellent quality of life are propelling the region to even greater heights. REDI Cincinnati ignites the regional economy and is ready to help your business prosper.

Smart Asset ranked Cincinnati as its #1 METRO FOR RECENT COLLEGE GRADUATES for four straight years, 2019-2022 Proudly ranked TOP 10 METRO by Site Selection magazine on the Governor’s Cup list for 20 straight years - Site Selection magazine, March 2023

#1 #2 #3 #5

Expand, relocate, and grow with confidence in the Cincinnati Region.

Contact Kimm Lauterbach, President & CEO, at KLauterbach@REDICincinnati.com or call +1 (513) 562-8474.

Best pediatric hospital in the U.S.— Cincinnati Children’s

REDI Cincinnati

- U.S. News & World Report, 2023

REDICincinnati.com

Best regional airport in North America - Skytrax, 2023

Best metro for sustainability - Site Selection magazine, 2022

Metro in Site Selection’s Global Groundwork Index, which factors corporate facility investment, job growth and infrastructure investment - Site Selection magazine, 2023

3 E. Fourth Street, Suite 301, Cincinnati, OH 45202 @GrowCincyUSA

IMAGE IS EVERYTHING Cities and regions grow and thrive when populations increase, as businesses move in, expand and attract talent, and when ƅĕŤĕūļŞŤ ÎŞö ðŞÎƆij ūļ īļêÎī ĒļūöīŤ Îijð ÎūūŞÎêūĕļijŤǂ ĒöŤö ūƌśöŤ ļċ ÎêūĕƅĕūĕöŤ ÎŞö ĕijƟŰöijêöð éƌ ĕijðĕƅĕðŰÎī śöŞêöśūĕļijŤ ļċ Î śīÎêöƽ which are formed through both an emotional connection and a rational understanding of a city’s attributes. Perceptions shape reputation, and ultimately drive behavior. The key is to align and deliver on both rational and emotional levels.

To help our region’s businesses “sell Cincy” and continue to build on our reputation together, CX has developed a FREE ŞöŤļŰŞêö īĕéŞÎŞƌ ļċ IJÎŞĨöūĕijČ ÎŤŤöūŤ ŤśöêĕƞêÎīīƌ êŞöÎūöð ūļ ŤĒļƆêÎŤö ūĒö ŞöČĕļij ƆöǞŞö śŞļŰð ūļ êÎīī ĒļIJöǂ ĒöŤö ÎŤŤöūŤ ĕijêīŰðö talent recruitment tools, promotional copy, accolades from national media outlets, and more.

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THE JUMP

A NEW SPIN ON ATTRACTING MORE WORKERS AND VISITORS DOWNTOWN. P H O T O G R A P H BY C H R I S V O N H O L L E

Get a jump on the latest intel about the new CEO at Rhinegeist, the new agency model at LPK, and the new “Meet Me Downtown” campaign. And catch up with Xavier’s new Dean of the Williams College of Business and community-focused business owners in Goshen.

WINTER 2023 REALM 7

THE JUMP

LARGEST EMPLOYERS Total Employees

KROGER

20,000

CINCINNATI CHILDREN’S TRIHEALTH

18,502 12,096

UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI 11,141 ST. ELIZABETH HEALTHCARE 10,353

Job growth drives economic activity in the 16-county Cincinnati region, of course, but a variety of factors drive job growth: population growth, talent attraction and retention, business relocation and expansion, government support and taxation, and the financial health of our public and private companies. Here’s a snapshot of the region’s powerhouse businesses and how job growth here compares to Cincinnati’s peer cities.

Statistics provided by the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber’s Center for Research & Data.

UC HEALTH

9,816

PROCTER & GAMBLE GE AEROSPACE

9,700

7,500

BON SECOURS MERCY HEALTH 7,500 FIFTH THIRD BANCORP 7,000 Source: Cincinnati Business Courier

FASTEST GROWING PRIVATE COMPANIES

FORTUNE 500 COMPANIES

Percent growth 2020-2022

Total Revenue 2022

LARGEST EMPLOYERS OUTSIDE OF HAMILTON COUNTY

KROGER (#24)

Total Employees

HIT SEEKERS SPORTS CARDS (FT. MITCHELL) ...... 4,228% PREMIER GLOBAL TRANSPORTATION (MILFORD) .. 2,592%

$148.3 BILLION

PROLINK (NORWOOD) ............................................. 453%

PROCTER & GAMBLE (#51)

BUTLER COUNTY: MIAMI UNIVERSITY .................... 3,804

GREY MAT TER (CLEARCREEK TWP.) ........................... 417%

$80.2 BILLION

AGAVE & RYE (COVINGTON) ..................................... 354%

WESTERN & SOUTHERN (#314)

CLERMONT COUNTY: TQL.......................................... 2,650

WHITEHORSE FREIGHT (CRESTVIEW HILLS) .............. 311%

$13.1 BILLION

MARCH FIRST BRANDS (SYCAMORE TWP.) ................ 302%

FIFTH THIRD BANCORP (#411)

MILLBRIDGE METALS (SILVERTON) .......................... 286%

$9.3 BILLION

HOMESTRETCH (MADISONVILLE) ............................. 282%

CINTAS (#473)

SYNERGISTIC (EVENDALE) ...................................... 274%

$7.9 BILLION

Source: Cincinnati Business Courier

Source: Fortune

NORTHERN KENTUCKY: ST. ELIZABETH .......................... 9,569 Source: Cincinnati Business Courier

FORTUNE 500 HQ IN PEER CITIES

JOB GROWTH IN PEER CITIES

Companies ranked in 2023 Fortune 500

MINNEAPOLIS

14

CINCINNATI

5

CHARLOT TE

9

COLUMBUS

5

PIT TSBURGH

9

NASHVILLE

5

CLEVELAND

7

INDIANAPOLIS

3

ST. LOUIS

7

LOUISVILLE

1

MILWAUKEE

6

KANSAS CITY

1

N o t e : G E A e ro s p a c e o f f i c i a l l y b e c o m e s i t s ow n c o m p a n y i n 2 0 24 a n d w i l l b e h e a d q u a r t e re d i n E ve n d a l e , i n c re a s i n g t h e re g i o n ’s Fortune 500 companies to six.

Source: Fortune

8 REALM WINTER 2023

WARREN COUNTY: AMAZON ................................... 3,667

Percent growth 2017-2022

RALEIGH ............ 12.9%

MINNEAPOLIS .... -0.3%

NASHVILLE ........ 11.5%

ST. LOUIS ........... -0.5%

INDIANAPOLIS ... 5.4%

MILWAUKEE ....... -1.5%

COLUMBUS ........ 4.1%

CLEVELAND ....... -2.3%

CINCINNATI ....... 2.2%

PITTSBURGH ...... -4.2%

Source: Lightcast

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THE JUMP

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

DOWNTOWN DRAWS US Life has not completely rebounded to pre-pandemic normals, especially in downtown business centers, where office workers and corporate travelers continue to return slowly. The Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber has partnered with area business leaders to launch “Meet Me Downtown,” an initiative to reignite Cincinnati’s economic and cultural vibrancy in the urban core.

RIPPLE EFFECT

Even though downtown is known for its corporate headquarters buildings, 93 percent of downtown businesses are small businesses. And those shops and offices depend on activity from other downtown workers and visitors.

CONNECTIONS

“The daytime economy of downtown is critical to the future of the city,” says Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval.

“Employees who work downtown more often help support small businesses and they find stronger connections to other professionals.”

DISCOUNTS & DEALS

A number of small downtown businesses are offering discounts through the winter, from group ice skating at Fountain Square (pictured) to food and drink specials at Taste of Belgium, Brown Bear Bakery, and 4EG bars and restaurants.

FACE TO FACE

Downtown has plenty of spaces to reconnect, share ideas, and build relationships, whether people are collaborating with colleagues, attending a sports or arts event, joining a friend for coffee, or making connections at a local networking meetup.

10 REALM WINTER 2023

P H O T O G R A P H BY C H R I S V O N H O L L E

WINTER 2023 REALM 11

THE JUMP

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

BREWING HELP FOR SMALL BUSINESSES

Storefronts to the Forefront grants support the heart of Goshen and other local business districts.

–SARAH M. MULLINS

Julie Casey and her husband Terry dreamed of owning their own coffee shop and embedding themselves in a community, so they took the leap and opened Goshen Grind in that eastern suburb. Their business, though, is more than just a coffee shop that regularly receives rave reviews from locals

and newbies for its espressos—it's become a haven for area residents.

Beyond the drinks they serve, Julie and Terry stay true to their mission of service and being active community members. Last year when a tornado struck the Goshen area, they knew they had a responsibility to serve

12 REALM WINTER 2023

as a hub of support for those who lost their homes. What started as a small cookout grew into two weeks serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner with help from community partners.

Their 1,000square-foot shop

is a humble space, but their generosity has a ripple effect beyond last year’s disaster relief. A couple weeks out of the month the Caseys dedicate their tip jar to helping those in need, and Thomas Deere, vice president of sales and engagement at the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber, says their community support is noticed.

Businesses like Goshen Grind are why the Chamber partnered with Duke Energy to launch the Storefronts to the Forefront program.

“Small businesses are the heart of the community by serving as a place where people can come together,” says Deere.

“No matter what business district you’re looking at, they foster a sense of community and belonging. These storefronts are the backbone of our regional economy, and for us to support them just helps the community as a whole.”

The program’s goal is to help increase visibility of small businesses in the region by providing $5,000 grants. Recipients can use the funds for capital improvements, marketing support, expansion investments, or other growth-related efforts.

The Caseys were awarded one

of five grants in 2023, the program’s second year, and plan to use the money to create an outdoor patio with more seating space since their indoor space is limited.

If funds remain, they’ll also work on creating a mobile extension of the shop.

“We do a lot of different things with the community and donate back as much as we can,” says Julie.

“This $5,000 is huge for us, and we are so grateful that we’re able to do something for our business with that. We don’t want to just supply local roasted

coffee—we want to be a part of something positive overall for our community.”

Other recipients of the 2023 Storefronts to the Forefront grants include Mt. Washington Creamy Whip, King Arthur’s Court Toys in Oakley, Two Seven Two Bakery in Clifton, and Roebling Books & Coffee in Dayton, Kentucky. In 2022, the program supported business districts in East Price Hill, Loveland, Milford, Madisonville, New Richmond, Norwood, Reading, and Walnut Hills as well as Bellevue, Ft. Thomas, and Ludlow.

Small businesses like Goshen Grind, owned by Julie and Terry Casey (above), are the heart of most communities.

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THE JUMP

BRANDING

LPK REFRESHES ITS B2C MODEL The 40-year-old agency renews its emphasis on consumer strategy.

—SARAH M. MULLINS

How do you brand a product or a business when consumers are constantly changing their buying behavior? Downtown-based branding agency LPK believes it all starts with understanding the consumer deeply before considering business needs or, as they like to say, starting with the “who.”

Businesses often come to outside agencies asking what’s best for their brand. LPK seeks to solve what’s best for the consumer. “We’ve noticed that the most successful businesses and brands are the ones that invest in the human experience,” says CEO Sarah Tomes. “So instead of asking What’s best for my business? they start with What’s best for my consumer? We focus on knowing the consumer deeply and completely.

We want to know who they are, where they are, what they’re interested in, and what their needs are.”

LPK started in 1983 as Libby, Perszyk, Kathman Inc. and quickly solidified a reputation in package design and shaped strategies to help clients better connect with consumers.

Around 2010, the company added in-house in14 REALM WINTER 2023

with Cincinnati Opera, which wants to find ways to engage a younger generation of ticket-buyers. Working to find “who” that new audience would be, the team incorporated emergnovation services to help uncover growth op- ing technologies into the storytelling experience portunities for clients. And now LPK kicks off and explored innovative marketing approaches its fifth decade with an even stronger emphasis to building a more diverse community. on consumer strategy.

LPK’s work with Corona uncovered that “Everything we’re doing is being tracked, consumers associate the beer with relaxation, and clients typically have an abundance of but further evaluation revealed an even deeper data,” says Tomes. “We excel at consumer desire for tranquility. The translating data into actionable Gillette brand, they discovered, ininsights to enhance or refine or a sense of control.

“We excel at duces create new brands, products, or LPK is also redefining its talent recruitment strategy, and a experiences. Because we’ve done translating remote-first model has allowed our homework, we’re able to data into the company to recruit beyond make those deep connections.” actionable Cincinnati while maintaining a The LPK team works with local office for those preferring to businesses to craft personas insights,” and consumer journeys to nail says LPK work in person. “In our industry, if down the “who” that they want we think about our clients, a lot of CEO Sarah to reach. Personas are detailed, them are not local,” says Tomes. “So resulting in fictional representa- Tomes. we’ve kind of been working in this tions of an ideal customer and a way for a while. I don’t feel like this consumer journey map showing work-from-home concept was that the path between a consumer discovering a foreign—it wasn’t as hard for us to make a shift. product and making a purchase.

It’s enabled us to grow, expand, and diversify LPK employed this approach in its work our team in a very beneficial way.”

I L LU S T R AT I O N BY PA R KO P O LO

THE KEY TO EMPLOYING CINCINNATI STATE GRADS IS TO HIRE THEM BEFORE THEY GRADUATE! Hands-on Cooperative Education builds resumes and relationships.

Hiring Co-op students offers valuable educational opportunities to students, and also benefits your business: • A cost-effective way to fill temporary and long-term staffing needs • An opportunity to evaluate potential future employees • Cincy State students are local and they STAY local • A way to fill entry-level professional positions with qualified candidates Cincinnati State’s career pathways are based in the workforce needs of this community. Make sure you are getting the talent you need for the future of your business.

LEARN HOW to set-up a Co-op Program at your company or post your position to co-op students and recent graduates visit:

www.cincinnatistate.edu/coop

THE JUMP

FOOD AND BEVERAGE

A NEW CEO IS ON TAP

Rhinegeist Brewery heads into 2024 with a new leader and a new product focus.

—ELIZABETH MILLER WOOD

Adam Bankovich has loved craft beer since the movement’s infancy. After graduating from the University of Cincinnati, he cut his teeth in the industry as the manager of UC’s on-campus pub, which led to a craft beer distributor role at Cavalier Distributing and then a lead sales position with San Diego-based Stone Brewing.

Craft beer was exploding all the while, he says, “and I was an avid consumer.”

Having lived in Cincinnati since college, Bankovich had long been familiar with the Rhinegeist brand when he was approached for the role of Chief Commercial Officer in October 2022. His deep respect for cofounders Bob Bonder and Bryant Goulding, who remain active on Rhinegeist’s board, made it a difficult offer to refuse. “Having the opportunity to help them evolve into the next phase of growth as a company was really exciting for me,” Bankovich says.

Six months into his role, he was tapped again for interim CEO. Over the course of a nationwide search with more than 250 applicants for the permanent position, Bankovich’s track record spoke loudest. He assumed the role of permanent CEO in October 2023.

For him, Rhinegeist’s allure has always been the total package—not just the quality of the products but “the people, their grit, their determination, their abilities,” he says. It’s the three private event spaces, the com16 REALM WINTER 2023

prehensive marketing, the 125,000-square-foot pre-prohibition taproom experience, and even the company’s private trucking division, Freight Geist. “It’s incredible how everything is done in-house,” he says.

While some new CEOs arrive from the outside like bulldozers, Bankovich’s leadership style has been more like a scaffold: respecting and upholding the integrity of the company’s culture. He’s quick to listen, slow to voice opinions, and assumes the best of his team’s intent. Even conflict, he says, can be framed as “healthy tension” when everyone’s pulling in the same direction. It’s a posture he models from the top.

In an increasingly saturated market—there were 3,500 craft breweries in the U.S. when Rhinegeist opened in 2013, now there are nearly 10,000—Bankovich’s challenge will be to maintain Rhinegeist’s momentum without spreading too thin. “The craft beer consumer is promiscuous and always looking for what’s new and what’s next,” he says. “It’s easy to get sucked into a vortex of innovate, innovate, innovate.”

The art is knowing when to say no and when to double down.

With that mantra in mind, Rhinegeist plans to scale back its family of RG Bevs, a flavored malt beverage originally intended to compete in the beer cooler market, and recommit to the Bubbles hard seltzer line with new flavors. The company will continue to push Cincy Light, which launched in June, as well as Juicy Truth, an extension of the brewery’s flagship Truth beer.

The Hop Box will also be getting attention, with new exclusive hop-forward beers being added to the revolving variety pack.

As for Bankovich’s favorite Rhinegeist beverage, his answer is expectedly coy: “The beer that fits whatever I’m doing.” It may be diplomatic, but like the rest of the brand it’s rooted in Truth.

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THE JUMP arco Pagani was named dean of the Williams College of Business at Xavier University in July, following an unlikely path to the position. He replaced Tom Hayes, who led the school since 2016 and returned to teaching after stepping down. Hayes has been involved with Xavier for almost 50 years, while Pagani is new to the Midwest after growing up in Italy and attending college in France, Montreal, and Atlanta before spending more than 15 years at San Jose State, where he was interim dean of the of the Lucas College and Graduate School of Business.

Why was a smaller Jesuit college in Cincinnati attractive to a cosmopolitan citizen of the world? “I was interested in a big change,” says Pagani, who speaks English precisely with a delightful Italian accent. “San Jose State is a large state institution where the majority of students were transfers from community colleges, so they would stay only for a couple of years. At Xavier, the faculty can connect more. I get to know a lot of the students because they are often in Stephen and Dolores Smith Hall for the entire day of classes or study. It’s not a big commuter school where they just go to class and leave.”

Pagani’s passion for connection is palpable. He is reminded that former XU President Rev. Michael Graham famously lived on campus in a residence hall. “I don’t live on campus,” he says, laughing. “I have an apartment about 10 minutes from here. But my wife stayed in California for now, so most of my day is spent here. I think it’s important, especially in the beginning, that I learn about the institution and the people and engage with the Xavier community as well as alumni and the city’s professional community.”

The reputation of Williams College is secure, so Pagani doesn’t need to fix anything, but he hopes to enhance the foundational structure. “(We are looking) at our offering of graduate programs in response to the needs of the market,” he says. “That could include revamping the curriculum of some of our MBA programs, but also adding new programs that would be aimed at growing the enrollment, which is an important part of my job. We are always looking at enhancing the experiential learning opportunity, maybe sourcing more projects from our outside stakeholders to bring in real-life examples.”

In addition to the many local business leaders who are Xavier alumni, Pagani can also call on the 18,000 or so people who have earned MBAs from Williams College.

“That’s a wonderful support system, a networking opportunity for our students,” he says.

The final piece of the puzzle for Pagani might be the most important. “Jesuit values are the core value of taking care of the entire person,” he says. “So not only their academic and intellectual development, but also their personal development and their ethical development, which is very important at the university.

It is a 360-degree approach to developing students as successful individuals and hopefully also successful in their family and community. We want them to have a positive impact on society.”

M

EDUCATION

TEACHING TO MAKE AN IMPACT Xavier’s new business college dean focuses on ethical development as much as academics.

—BILL THOMPSON

18 REALM WINTER 2023

I L LU S T R AT I O N BY C A R L I E B U R T O N

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DEEP DIVE

THE BLACK & BROWN FACES ART SERIES HELPS VERIFY THE VALUE OF CULTURAL DIVERSITY. P H O T O G R A P H BY C AT H E R I N E V I OX

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College students learn to love Cincinnati

32

“Killer talent” supercharges business growth

40

The economic impact of arts diversity

44

Is there a better way to govern a county?

WINTER 2023 REALM 23

DEEP DIVE

Learning to Love Cincinnati

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hen it comes to selecting a college or university to attend for post-secondary education, students have plenty of options in the Cincinnati region. The University of Cincinnati, Xavier University, Miami University, and Northern Kentucky University are stalwarts, each of them almost-reflexive fill-in-the-blanks for the college edition of the colloquial “Where did you go to school?” query so often uttered.

Local students are aware of these schools due in no small part to proximity bias, but they aren’t the only ones filling out ever-growing enrollment numbers, like UC’s record-breaking 2023-2024 school year figure of 50,921. National and regional attention extends to Mount St. Joseph, Thomas More, Cincinnati State, and the Art Academy of Cincinnati as well.

Students from out of state and out of the country comprise 30 percent of UC’s student body and 35 percent of NKU’s student body. International students are now nearly 1 in 10 at UC, with the top countries of origin including (in order) India, China, Vietnam, Nigeria, and Nepal.

Vu Pham, UC’s student body vice president, is one such individual. “The reason why I really chose the University of Cincinnati is I think they care about the international student,” says Pham, a fifth-year chemical engineering major.

Originally from Danang, Vietnam, Pham made plans to attend a community college in Seattle before transferring to a four-year university in order to first dip 24 REALM WINTER 2023

WHY STUDENTS COME TO THE REGION FOR COLLEGE, WHY THEY STAY AFTER GRADUATION, AND WHAT IT ALL MEANS FOR THE LOCAL ECONOMY.

BY LEYLA SHOKOOHE ILLUSTRATION BY EVAN VERRILLI

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H E A D S H O T C O U R T E SY T K T K

WINTER 2023 REALM 25

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“I THINK THE UNIVERSITY DOES A GREAT JOB SHOWING THEY CARE ABOUT INTERNATIONAL AND TRANSFER STUDENTS.”

FEELING WANTED

Vu Pham, a native of Vietnam, says UC’s connections across the city have improved his career options here.

his toes into the American collegiate education system. “Two years before I even committed to Cincinnati, I met with a UC alum who now works for the university as an international recruiter,” says Pham. “She’s Vietnamese, she met me in my hometown, we got coffee, and she was like, Hey Vu, you’re a good student. Would love to see your application to UC ... when you decide ultimately to get your bachelor’s degree. The

26 REALM WINTER 2023

whole time I was in Seattle, there was this school called Cincinnati in the back of my head.”

Pham met with a transfer counselor at his community college (now a four-year institution called Edmonds College, previously Edmonds Community College) and got the scoop on everything UC had to offer a potential transferring engineering student like him. He learned about UC’s robust co-op program and the chemical engineering track itself.

“It was a very easy decision for me because I think the university of Cincinnati a great job showing they care about this demographic of interna-

tional students and transfer students and makes sure they’re putting in the effort to recruit us,” says Pham. “I think that was definitely the biggest piece that made me want to come here, plus they have a great engineering program. I really enjoyed having the opportunity to go to class and coop at the same time and get that real industrial experience. To me, that’s the most valuable piece of a University of Cincinnati education.”

Pham’s co-ops included a turn at Givaudan, the Swiss-owned flavoring company with a regional headquarters in Cincinnati. Indeed, UC is famous for pioneering the co-op experience as it’s known today. That was part of

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the reason 2023 UC graduate Alex van Haaren also chose to attend.

“It just seemed like with Cincinnati’s co-op program I was able to figure out what I wanted to do [for] my degree,” he says. “I wasn’t super sure that I wanted to do engineering, but I knew it revolved around problem-solving and I liked that.

So co-ops gave me the ability to explore different career opportunities out there.”

Part of a family line of engineers, van Haaren grew up in Tipp City just outside of Dayton. His brother also attended UC, albeit four years before him. “I was canvassing a lot of different Midwestern universities—Purdue, Ohio State, the University of Dayton, Case Western Reserve—as well as North Carolina State because my parents went there,” says van Haaren. “As I was going through the process and looking through campus tours and the programs and the social life, just trying to get an overall sense of what each one offered, it kind of always came back to UC and Cincinnati. Every time I visited, I loved Cincinnati. It gave a small town feel but also this big city vibe I didn’t have growing up in the country.”

That balance of atmosphere is also what attracted Xavier graduate Jessica Griggs to the region. “I just liked how XU is a small school, obviously, but beC A M P U S P H O T O G R A P H S BY A N D R E W H I G L E Y / U N I V E R S I T Y O F C I N C I N N AT I / P O R T R A I T P H O T O G R A P H BY K E V I N J . WAT K I N S

TRYING ON FOR SIZE

Alex van Haaren considered a number of universities before deciding to attend UC, saying Cincinnati “gave a small town feel but also this big city vibe.” Campus sights include (from top) the College of Law, Mantei Center, and the Main Street corridor.

WINTER 2023 REALM 27

DEEP DIVE

ing set in a bigger city like Cincinnati made it feel like I was getting the best of both experiences,” she says. “I’m from Lafayette, Indiana, which is a smallish city, so it was still a step up in terms of size but wasn’t overwhelming. It was kind of a comfortable transition.”

THE VALUE OF COMMUNITY

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L E W VA N H A A R E N liked Cincinnati well enough that he stayed after graduation, landing a job with Procter & Gamble.

The engineering program at UC requires several “rotations” or co-ops for students at different employers in the field, and his last rotation in summer 2022 was in P&G’s Mason offices.

“I ended up really enjoying it and loving P&G,” he says. “As a UC Bearcat in Cincinnati, everyone knows a P&Ger or is one step away from a P&Ger. It’s part of the city culture in a way, so I always wanted to be part of that.”

Even though he’s employed in offices at the Mason Business and Innovation Center, van Haaren chose to make his home in downtown Cincinnati. “I live on Seventh and Elm streets close to Knockback Nat’s,” he says. “Ideally I’d work at our headquarters downtown, since I live just four blocks away.

It would make my morning commute from 25 minutes to about a 10-minute walk, which would be nice, but maybe in the future.”

For now, the future entails staying in Cincinnati. “My short-term goal right now is staying in Cincinnati,” says van Haaren. “I don’t really have any plans to leave. I’m loving that I can hang out with college friends, meet new people, and explore the city more. Despite going to UC, I feel like I haven’t even explored a quarter of Cincinnati, so I’m trying to

28 REALM WINTER 2023

PICTURE THIS

NKU senior Emily Sisk grew up in Western Kentucky but “so easily pictured myself studying at NKU” during her college visit.

Campus highlights include the Fine Arts Center (above) and the University Center.

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do as much as I can to really soak it in.”

Rebecca Zemmelman, an attorney with The Family Law and Fertility Law Group in Blue Ash, also saw the potential for connections when she decided to attend UC College of Law after finishing her undergraduate studies at Miami University. “My tour of UC did a really good job of not just talking all about jobs and corporate law and passage rates for the bar exam,” she says. “They really talked about the experience at UC and the opportunities that Cincinnati and UC Law would be able to provide as well as all of the different clinics and internships, externships, and fellowships. And just how integrated this

law school is with the greater law community, which really motivated me to go there.”

Current out-of-state tuition for a year at the University of Cincinnati is $27,140 and at Northern Kentucky University is $21,096, though residents of certain counties in Ohio and Indiana pay reduced tuition rates at NKU. Both are cheaper than the national average for out-of-state student tuition at universities, so while the cost savings aren’t necessarily a bargain, every little bit helps. At Xavier, the only private university from which students were interviewed for this story, tuition cost for a school year (whether in-state or out-of-state) is $47,895.

“Scholarships honestly were my number one draw for why I went here,” says NKU senior Emily Sisk.

Sisk grew up in Beaver Dam, a small city in Western Kentucky that’s just over three hours away from NKU. In her experience, most of her fellow residents and peers chose universities closer to home: Murray State, the University of Kentucky, and, most often, Western Kentucky University. “Nearly my entire family went to WKU—my sister, my parents, my aunt—and that was where a ton of my friends went,” she says. “Two of my closest friends are there now.”

Sisk was drawn to NKU initially because of her interest in potentially going to law school upon graduation, with NKU being home to the Salmon P. Chase College of Law. Then another of her sisters attended NKU as part of the Kentucky Governor’s Scholars Program and gave her the first taste of what NKU was like. (Sisk also participated in the program, which helped lead to her robust scholarship opportunities.) As her own deadline for deciding where to attend college approached, with the top two contenders narrowed to NKU or the University of Louisville, college visits cemented her choice.

“I just had this feeling about it that I could so easily picture myself study-

“I HAD A FEELING THAT THE NKU CAMPUS WAS BIG ENOUGH BUT ALSO SMALL ENOUGH. THERE WAS THE OPPORTUNITY TO REALLY STAND OUT THERE BUT ALSO HAVE A LOT OF SUPPORT,” SAYS EMILY SISK.

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TAKEAWAYS JUST RIGHT Students from out of state and out of the country comprise 30 percent of UC’s student body and 35 percent of NKU’s student body. Many come to Cincinnati from small hometowns, and the city’s size and opportunities are both exhilarating and comforting—big and boisterous, but not overwhelming.

MAKING MORE CONNECTIONS Students are thrilled with the connections their universities allow them to make across the region through co-ops, internships, fellowships, and mentorships. Access to real-world opportunities at Procter & Gamble or a law firm are invaluable, they say.

OPEN TO STAYING College students are open to staying in the region after graduation. “There’s a huge variety of industries here that are applicable for my major,” says Vu Pham, a native of Vietnam who graduates from UC this spring.

ing there,” says Sisk. “I had a feeling that the campus was big enough but also small enough. There was the opportunity to really stand out there but also meet a ton of people and have a lot of support.”

Griggs feels the same about her time at Xavier. “I had a great experience there,” she says. “I was really attracted to the smaller classes and being able to build relationships with professors. And, obviously, the programs are great. I really value the relationships I built there, and I feel like it was a really supportive community.”

For Pham, the UC campus community has also been a huge plus. “I never feel that I have to go outside of the Clifton area for the things that I need,” he says. “Kroger is there, and I find there are a lot of diverse food options.”

He’s also gravitated toward the off-campus Cincinnati community in general, specifically the Asian diaspora, getting involved with Asianati, the organization celebrating Asian food and culture through an extensive directory and story-oriented website.

“They have just been in general a very helpful community, and the events they do, the work, the mission, I am 100 percent supporting of that,” says Pham. “They have supported me by providing points of advocacy in my role in student government.”

KEYING ON PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

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H A M I S I N VO LV E D I N the Next Innovations scholar program at UC, and through it was assigned a mentor who works at Fifth Third Bank. This relationship helped expose him to the broader networks that exist in Cincinnati in different sectors. Participating in UC’s

student government, he helped restart the school’s Farmer’s Market, which features small and local businesses, getting them in front of a student body that might not otherwise be aware.

“I’m also actively being a part of other things outside of the college campus bubble,” says Pham. “I feel welcomed, and I feel involved. I think sometimes it can feel like these are things that you have to do a bit of extra work to do and you kind of have to step out of the campus to look for them. So I think we should have more of them available, more of their presence on campus. I would love to see more local and small businesses come to campus.”

Zemmelman had a similar experience with the legal community as a gateway to the broader Cincinnati region. She lived in Mt. Adams and in Oakley during law school and fell in love with Cincinnati.

“What I loved about Cincinnati the most was the size of the legal community,” she says. “I had a summer internship in Washington, D.C., and I thought for sure I was going to go back there, but I realized that I knew more people in Cincinnati already just with the law students than I would have known within even 10 years of being in a big city like that. I really enjoyed the camaraderie of the people I’d met so far and that everybody was just so quick to help in Cincinnati, quick to connect people. There was just so much opportunity.”

Originally from Ottawa Hills in Toledo, about three hours north of Cincinnati, Zemmelman met her husband while in law school and they decided to make their home in Blue Ash. “I will say, I’ve recruited three different friends of mine to move here from different cities,” she said. “One was living in Columbus, one in D.C.,

and one in Florida, and I got them to move to Cincinnati. They’re like, You should really become an ambassador of some sort.”

And in a kind of reverse boomeranging, Zemmelman followed in her mother’s footsteps when she relocated for and after law school. “A little fun fact is my mom is originally from Cincinnati,” she says. “She ended up going to Toledo for law school and stayed in Toledo, and then I came to Cincinnati for law school and stayed here.”

Griggs is also something of a reverse boomerang: She left Cincinnati for a position with International Paper in Memphis, Tennessee, after graduating from Xavier in 2018 but returned in 2020. “I was excited to explore a new part of the

country,” she says. “I stayed in Memphis for almost two years, and a year or year and a half into that I was like, I really want to move back to Cincinnati.

My boyfriend moved down to Memphis with me, and we both were just like, This isn’t the vibe for us. The culture is different, the landscape is different, our friends were in Cincinnati, and so we made the decision to move back.”

Griggs took a new job with Kroger at the end of March 2020, and they made the move back a couple of months later. “We were looking along the Route 50 corridor on the east side for a place to live,” she says.

“My boyfriend grew up in Milford, so that’s actually where we landed. We live about five minutes from

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his childhood home.”

Pham graduates this spring with both his engineering degree and his MBA. He’s keeping his options open, including considering Cincinnati, for his post-graduate plans.

“I don’t have a concrete plan yet,” he says. “I’m on the hunt for a fulltime offer right now. If I can stay in Cincinnati, I would love to. There are a lot of good companies here I would love to work for, like Kroger, P&G, and Givuadan. Part of the decision when I think about Cincinnati is that there’s a huge variety of industries here that are applicable for my major.

Both P&G and Givaudan hire a ton of chemical engineers. There’s already such a robust environment here that would allow me to develop my professional career and catalyze a lot of the personal growth I’ve had, too.”

BACK AGAIN

Jessica Griggs came to Xavier University from Indiana, moved to Memphis after graduation, and returned for a job with Kroger. “Our friends were in Cincinnati,” she says. One of XU’s signature buildings is Hinkle Hall (below).

WINTER 2023 REALM 31

DEEP DIVE

A Talent for Business Building CHIEF EXECUTIVES AT FOUR FAST-GROWING PRIVATE COMPANIES DISCUSS HOW “KILLER TALENT” HAS ALLOWED THEM TO SCALE UP SUCCESSFULLY.

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BY CARRIE BLACKMORE

ivisions Maintenance Group, Gravity Diagnostics, Prolink, and SugarCreek have nothing in common and everything in common as growing businesses.

Divisions is in the facility management business, helping its customers streamline service contracts for everything from landscaping to plumbing to window cleaning.

What does DMG sell to the big-box retailers, distribution centers, apartment complexes, and medical facilities they serve?

Peace of mind, says CEO Gary Mitchell.

Gravity Diagnostics is a laboratory conducting all sorts of diagnostic tests. Inside its state-of-the-art facility in Covington, the company ran 45 percent of the state of Kentucky’s COVID tests during the height of the pandemic. Since then, it’s shifted into other areas, says CEO Tony Remington, including substance abuse disorder and mental health.

Prolink is a workforce solutions company that placed 70,000 people into a plethora of jobs across the country in 2022. The company does far more than staffing these days, 32 REALM REALMSEASON WINTER20XX 2023

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says CEO Tony Munafo, offering expertise in talent acquisition planning, culture, data collection, and more.

Finally, SugarCreek is a food manufacturer, one of the nation’s largest producers of bacon products and proud new owner of classic Cincinnati beer brands. If you shop at Costco or Walmart, you’ve probably eaten some of its food, says Board Chair John G. Richardson.

They’re very different companies, yet they all have two outward characteristics in common: Each has experienced tremendous growth since launching from the seed of an idea.

And each chief executive has approached business challenges and opportunities from an entrepreneurial mindset.

The four leaders speak to Realm about their intentions to find, nurture, and retain top talent in every corner of their companies, and each expresses a deep sense of responsibly to their clients. How else have they found success? Let’s dig a little deeper.

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DIVISIONS MAINTENANCE GROUP

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N NOVEMBER 2022, parts of western New York got buried in more than five feet of snow, but Divisions Maintenance Group had a plan for one of its clients, Walgreens, which has hundreds of stores in the state. DMG handles snow and ice removal for Walgreens stores all around the country, and days before the historic storm hit the company had already called in additional equipment and manpower from surrounding cities and states. Its network of providers worked night and day to keep the stores—including 30 in hardhit Buffalo—accessible to the public.

Ultimately, just five stores had to close temporarily.

“Facing many challenges including a state of emergency, travel, and the holidays, DMG was able to execute at a high level and provide timely updates as requested,” the Walgreens team wrote when it awarded DMG a

GROWTH IS EXPLODING

Divisions Maintenance Group moved its offices to The Foundry downtown, and SugarCreek started brewing Hudy Delight in Over-the-Rhine again (opposite page).

Vendor Recognition Award. How did they do it?

“It starts with no constraints,” says CEO Gary Mitchell. “We’re able to utilize local providers who are very knowledgeable—that’s why I call them ‘pros’—but we’re also able to call in resources.”

Mitchell started DMG in 1999 with one client, a friend who owned five retail stores in Northern Kentucky. The friend told Mitchell that dealing with 28 different vendors—one for plumbing, one for HVAC, one for lot sweeping, one for snow removal, and so on—was a time suck and invoices often contained uncommunicated costs.

There had to be a better way if so many facilities, large and small, were being managed in similar individual silos, Mitchell thought. Divisions began adding clients and building its network of providers. Today, the company averages one million work orders a year at 60,000 properties across the U.S., including every Kroger, Kohl’s, and Lowe’s store nationwide.

DMG achieves this level of service WINTER 2023 REALM 33

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JUST IN TIME

Gravity Diagnostics has expanded office space and employee count since the pandemic began.

by tapping into its network of vetted providers, who specialize in all sorts of services, including those already mentioned along with concrete repair, painting, janitorial services, power washing, EV charging station installation, and more. DMG account managers work with clients to streamline all of the services they need, and field managers visit facilities monthly, taking photos and identifying issues before they become problems.

Technology plays a big part in what they do, Mitchell says, and DMG has created smart phone applications for its clients and providers to have a plug-and-play, easily communicated experience.

Today, the company employs around 1,000 people, a 147 percent increase since 2020. Revenues from 2018 to 2022 have grown by 140 percent, with 2022 revenues exceeding $607.7 million.

None of it could be possible without DMG’s “killer talent,” Mitchell

34 REALM WINTER 2023

says, which recently moved into a new downtown headquarters office in The Foundry development across from Fountain Square. It was time for the team to come together under one roof, Mitchell says, and work together in a fun and inspiring environment.

Case in point: The office has plenty of great places for teams and individuals to focus on the job at hand, but also a decompression zone, with gaming consoles, a ping pong table, and skeeball.

“It comes down to speed, quality, and cost,” says Mitchell. “DMG delivers on all three.”

GRAVITY DIAGNOSTICS

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HEN CEO TONY Remington and Chief Operations Officer Julie Brazil established Gravity Diagnostics in 2016, they had no way of knowing that laboratories like theirs would play a vital role in the COVID-19 pan-

demic. “We saw the value of diagnostic testing, so we sought out to build or buy a laboratory,” says Remington.

“We found a laboratory in Covington that was licensed in all 50 states … but we had no idea what was going to happen.”

The company’s chief science officer approached the pair in early 2020, asking whether they should validate and begin testing for a mysterious and deadly virus beginning to spread on the other side of the globe. Yes, they agreed. Their laboratory was soon running samples for the states of Kentucky and Indiana, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and Kroger Health.

Demand for rapid test results catapulted the company from $5.8 million in revenues in 2019 to $145.2 million in 2020, turning Gravity Diagnostics into the fastest growing company in the region during that time, according to the Cincinnati Business Courier. The company exploded from 50 pre-panP H O T O G R A P H S C O U R T E SY G R AV I T Y D I A G N O S T I C S

demic employees to 500 at COVID’s peak. The lab expanded, too, from 5,000 to 80,000 square feet.

“When COVID hit the United States, we focused on the intensive care units and nursing homes where patients needed rapid results the most,” Remington says. “We felt we had a responsibility to assist our community, so saying no was never an option.”

The company has conducted more than four million COVID tests to date, with COVID tests constituted 95 percent of the lab’s workload during the height of the pandemic.

Today, COVID samples represent 5 percent of the workload, while non-

COVID samples are up 10-fold since 2019, Remington says. He and Brazil decided to pivot into the areas of substance use disorder and mental health disorders and are now doing a lot of medical monitoring and toxicology testing for addiction clinics around the U.S. Looking to the future, Remington would like to see diagnostics testing become a bigger part of the wellness and prevention side of healthcare.

“We truly believe more testing before you need the results, when done correctly, will reduce overall healthcare costs and save lives,” he says.

W hat else does he attribute their success to? “Our team, our

people, our commitment to doing right by others and paying it forward,” says Remington. “We never accept no, we work hard, and we find a way to overcome obstacles.”

PROLINK

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ORDS ON THE conference room wall behind CEO Tony Munafo read “Here We Grow,” “Linked

by Empathy,” and “Family First.” Munafo is talking about how the company became the third-fastest growing business in Cincinnati between 2020 and 2022, when revenues grew 453

TESTING 1-2-3

Julie Brazil and Tony Remington are expanding Gravity Diagnostics into testing for a wider range of health outcomes.

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TAKEAWAYS RIGHT PLACE, RIGHT TIME Business success often boils down to identifying an opportunity first, whether that is Gravity Diagnostics’ entry into healthcare lab tests a few years before the pandemic or SugarCreek’s recognition of the emergence of private-label grocery store food items.

THE SEEDS OF AN IDEA Starting small is the only way to start, says Gary Mitchell, who launched Divisions Maintenance Group in 1999 with one client, a friend who owned five retail stores in Northern Kentucky. Today he has 1,000 employees and annual revenues of $607.7 million.

LEAVING A LEGACY Brothers Tony and Michael Munafo started Prolink in 2011 in part because of their father’s insistence to leave a legacy in their professional lives. “We want to create a vehicle for employees to get where they want to go personally, professionally, and financially in order to create their own legacy,” Tony says.

percent from $316.2 million in 2020 to $1.7 billion in 2022.

“It wasn’t about being the biggest,” he says. “It’s about being the best. The best for our clients, for our talent, and for our internal team— giving them the resources they needed to be the best versions of themselves.”

Munafo started Prolink with his younger brother, Michael Munafo, in 2011. The brothers previously had worked for another staffing company, where the elder Munafo had first been a recruiter and then served in operations. He was leading teams in Columbus, Cincinnati, and Dayton when he was offered another promotion in Virginia.

A mentor, who Munafo has been meeting with for years, asked him if he was happy. Did he want something different? If so, the mentor suggested he should think about starting his own company. The conversation made Munafo think of his father, who had said they would start a company together when he beat cancer. “I went to Mike and said, We’re going to start a business.”

Munafo’s father died years before, just as Munafo was entering high school. But in the 10 years that he fought cancer, Vince Munafo showed his sons the meaning of perseverance, living without complaint, the power of positivity, and family. “You get one life, one opportunity,” Tony says. “It’s not about how long your life is or how many breaths you take. It’s what you do with those breaths.”

The brothers started Prolink as a staffing agency connecting occupational and physical therapists with temporary jobs in hospitals and schools. Since then, it’s expanded to include other parts of the healthcare industry, including travel healthcare jobs, and other industries, including technology and skilled labor sectors

like engineering, manufacturing, and construction. Today Prolink has 15 offices in major cities across the country—from Cincinnati to Florida to Hawaii—and employs roughly 1,100 people.

The company dropped the word “staffing” from its name last year because its scope has broadened, says Munafo. Prolink has developed processes, in-depth client analysis, and other workforce optimization solutions to help clients fill jobs while also planning for the right team and creating a thriving workplace culture.

Munafo’s father taught him what it means to leave a legacy, and Munafo wants his and Prolink’s legacy to be about empowerment. “We want to create a vehicle for people to get where they want to go personally, professionally, and financially in order to create their own legacy,” he says.

SUGARCREEK

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UGA RC R E E K FO U N D er John S. Richardson started working in the meat business after World War II. Beginning in a simple sales job, he rose through the industry to lead day-to-day operations for an international, full-line meat packing plant, says his son, SugarCreek Board Chair John G. Richardson.

“He was really good with numbers and recognized the industry was changing into specialty processing,” Richardson says. “He noticed out of all the departments—hams, loins, ribs, all the others—bacon was the department that made the most money.” And so in 1966 the elder Richardson and two partners purchased land in Washington Court House, Ohio, 80 miles northeast of Cincinnati, and opened Sugar-

Creek’s first bacon production plant.

Fast forward to today: SugarCreek is one of the largest custom manufacturers of private-label bacon products in the U.S. and has expanded to include many other ready-to-eat, organic, and fresh food products such as sausage, poultry, beef, seafood, and more. “We are really a meal solutions company,” says John G. Richardson, selling to both retail and food service industries.

Headquartered in Blue Ash, SugarCreek operates six plants in three states, including one of the nation’s first commercial-scale sous vide operations in Cambridge City, Indiana. The company has expanded into charcuterie, grains, and pastas and employs roughly 2,700 people.

In 2013, SugarCreek co-developed Brandworthy Food Solutions in West Chester Township. Products for some of North America’s best-known food

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brands in retail stores like Costco and Walmart are processed and packed there. The company recently passed $1 billion in annual revenues, and Richardson attributes their success to a tone his father set from the start.

“He used to say, Good enough is not enough,” he says.

They take that to heart, says President Michael Richardson, the third generation to lead the company. To date SugarCreek has never faced a product recall. “We’re not perfect, but we obsess about what needs to be tweaked and what needs more support,” Michael says. “At the end of the day, when you’re feeding people and your name is on it, there is an element of pride. I don’t want my in-laws, my neighbors, or any of our customers to have a bad experience.”

SugarCreek acquired Cincinnati Beverage Company last year, making them the owners of classic Cincinnati

beer brands Christian Moerlein, Little Kings, Hudepohl, and Burger as well as a handful of historic beer-related buildings in Over-the-Rhine.

It’s a passion project, says John G. Richardson, who is fascinated by the city’s brewing history. “We have unbelievable engineering and operations knowledge, so the pieces just came together,” he says.

Staying relevant is the name of the game, Michael Richardson says, as is being an employer of choice. To attract and keep talent, SugarCreek provides on-site daycare on its campuses, transportation to work, and housing options for its employees. “At the end of the day, you can have the nicest facilities and the best equipment,” Michael says, “but you’re going to lose if you don’t make a concerted effort to take care of your employees.”

99 BOTTLES OF BEER ON THE LINE

Staying relevant to consumer demand (such as craft beer) is the name of the game, says SugarCreek President Michael Richardson.

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Diverse Cultural and Economic Impacts ARTISTS AND ARTS LEADERS JOIN WITH CORPORATE, GOVERNMENT, AND INDIVIDUAL DONORS TO KEEP CINCINNATI ON THE MAP AS A MAJOR U.S. ARTS-FOCUSED CITY. B Y J O H N S T O W E L L

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he colors are vivid. There’s a distinctly modern look with a more flattened and abstract view of faces and landscape. One can see hope, pride, or despair in the same set of eyes.

The sculpture can be haunting or introspective, depending largely on the preconceived notions you didn’t even know you had.

That’s art. In this case, it’s African Modernism in America, coming to the Taft Museum of Art in February. It’s a snapshot in an album quickly expanding to explore and celebrate the diverse craftsperson who holds the chisel and applies the brush strokes.

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“It’s a generational shift,” says Rebekah Beaulieu, the Taft’s president and chief executive officer. “Museums recognize that art should reflect and inspire your community, favoring a more dialogic view than just me sitting on a velvet throne simply dictating what we should be looking at.”

Rembrandts, Gainsboroughs, and de Goyas grace the walls of the downtown museum. They’ve been there for decades and will remain for many more.

But the traveling African Modernism exhibit will expose Cincinnati to works from such artists as Ben Enwonwu of

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Nigeria, Peter Clarke of South Africa, and Skunder Boghossian of Ethiopia, mid-20th-Century masters who the exhibition will link to the cultural and political changes that were happening here in the U.S. The show will be on display through May 19.

The African masters will share their environs with Robert Duncanson landscapes that frame the original front entrance to the 200-year-old home of several prominent city leaders from our past. “We are a global society now, and Cincinnati reflects that,” says Beaulieu, noting specifically Procter & Gamble’s international reach and diverse employee base. ‘’But, for many of us growing up, we were taught art through the white Euro-centric lens.

We started with the classics, went on to the Renaissance, then the Enlightenment. But there was a whole other world out there that we really didn’t know. It’s exciting to stretch our wings and explore it.”

The Taft Museum isn’t the only

local arts organization exposing its patrons to work from elsewhere. The third installment of Paloozanoire’s Black & Brown Faces at the Cincinnati Art Museum, Verified: An Ode to the Cultural Influences That Inspire Nations, focuses on multimedia art from 15 Midwestern artists of color who celebrate the global impact of Black and Brown culture on everything from fashion and food to entertainment and science.

The show is on display through January 21, running alongside Clearly Indigenous: Native Visions Reimagined in Glass, featuring 120 glass pieces by 33

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Native American artists who use their art to tell traditional stories and promote social justice.

Two exhibitions ran side-by-side at the Contemporary Arts Center in the fall. An Ecology of Here used original art, film, and photographs to highlight the work of BIPOC farmers, artists, and gardeners in providing nourishment to their communities. The challenges of inner-city youth were explored in a series of prints provided by Philadelphia’s Rush Arts Foundation.

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ICHAEL THOMPSON sits hunched over a painstaking calligraphy he’s preparing for his upcoming art exhibition, which will run for a month starting in mid-January. He’s the first artist-in-residence at Mount St. Joseph University, and he’s an up-and-comer. He’s 24 years old and says he really didn’t begin to seriously paint until he was in college at Thomas More University.

Thompson is tall with an athletic build and an electric smile. He credits his college advisor for altering his life’s direction. Take an elective, his mentor said, that gives you enjoyment. The arts had always intrigued him, and he thought back to an art class he took as a child in a studio above a laundromat in Richmond, Kentucky, and remembered how he loved it. He already wrote and gave poetry readings, so the creativity was raw but ready.

BRIGHT LIGHTS

Michael Thompson (above) is the first artist-inresidence at Mount St. Joseph University.

Ricardo Grant (below) founded Paloozanoire to enrich the lives of people of color across the Midwest through art and entrepreneurship.

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“CINCINNATI’S ARTS CREATE A QUALITY OF LIFE AND A VIBRANT COMMUNITY, WHICH IS WHY PEOPLE WANT TO MOVE HERE,” SAYS RHONDA WHITAKER HURTT, DUKE ENERGY’S VICE PRESIDENT OF COMMUNITY RELATIONS AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT.

Thompson took the elective class, and the spark was lit. Soon after, he dropped his international business major and triple majored in English, Spanish, and Fine Arts.

His work was noticed quickly thanks to his initial job with ArtWorks. In short order, he earned residencies at the Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati Shakespeare Company, Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, and the Contemporary Arts Center. He’s secured grants and special commissions. He’s a good example of an arts community supporting a home-grown talent thanks, in large part to the business community and local foundations that provide funding.

“We support the arts because it represents diversity and fosters an inclusive environment of different experiences, personalities, and history,” says Rhonda Whitaker Hurtt, Duke Energy’s vice president of community relations and economic development.

“It creates a quality of life and a vibrant community, which is why people want to move here. We’ve seen in our economic development efforts that it absolutely matters.”

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Hurtt, who has worked local economic development issues for nearly 30 years, says Cincinnati’s nationally-recognized commitment to the arts tells a story of a community that invites expression and creativity—attributes that attract and excite young professionals. The emphasis on Black and Brown artists and the diverse audience they attract, she maintains, recognizes and celebrates our community’s changing demographics, which in turn helps companies recruit talented people of color to their rosters.

Hurtt also ties Duke’s commitment to diversity in the arts to the company’s efforts to diversify its own employee base, which also reflects the growing diversity of its customer base.

That commitment, she says, goes back to its days as Cinergy, when the company sponsored an art collection that won an award from Forbes.

Perhaps the biggest paint brush Cincinnati has in its arsenal is ArtsWave, one of the nation’s largest and most effective nonprofit supporters of the arts. Over the past 96 years, the consortium has partnered with the community to help fund museums

exhibits, stage performances, dance companies, music from opera to hip hop, individual artists, and dozens of special projects such as BLINK that have enriched the region’s cultural life.

Its annual campaign is well-organized and has for decades enjoyed the support of the region’s major corporations, foundations, and individual donors. Last year, the campaign raised $11.8 million, exceeding its goal and reaching a return to pre-pandemic contribution levels.

ArtsWave augments its budget by leveraging the community’s contributions, regularly securing competitive state and federal grants.

Part of that funding has gone into the Black & Brown Faces and African Modernism exhibitions, two of the five offerings that make up its 2023-24 Flow season. Now in its fourth year, Flow is ArtsWave’s signature celebration of African American visual, music, and dance. The Flow Pass entitles purchasers to events and social opportunities that bring diverse audiences together to experience both the talent and the social messaging inherent in the works of the artists.

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Flow was launched just before the pandemic hit but didn’t find its legs until the 2021 season, when ArtsWave secured corporate sponsorship for a series of free cultural events. “There was a gap on our stages and in our galleries,” says Janice Liebenberg, ArtsWave’s vice president of equitable arts advancement. Flow, she says, gives Black and Brown artists a chance to demonstrate their talent, but perhaps more importantly it speaks to the “culturally curious” arts patrons of all races and experiences.

From the outset of Flow, says Liebenberg, she saw white patrons from the region’s C-suites mingling with young people who “maybe never felt comfortable in one of our legacy theaters” and people of color who had rarely, if ever, attended an arts event. ‘’It started out as a free season pass, but now we sell them and people are buying them,” she says, laughing.

Flow, says ArtsWave CEO Alecia Kintner, has demonstrated that art can be cross-cultural. “Will white people go to a Black play or art exhibit?’’ she asks rhetorically. “The answer, so far, is yes. We’ve been intentional, too, in creating new connections through the social aspect of our events as well as jointly appreciating the talent.”

Kintner believes ArtsWave’s mission is to build audiences and opportunities for artists of color to shine.

The organization’s DEI commitment pulls no punches, beginning with the first sentence: “We acknowledge the deep-rooted systemic racism that permeates our society.’’ It carries that commitment to right a wrong into its funding decisions and its annual campaign, which this year will be led by the husband/wife team of P&G CEO Jon Moeller and Lisa Sauer. You’ll continue to see the impact on the walls of our art galleries and on the theater stages.

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Kintner talks passionately about art as a catalyst for building empathy and understanding, bringing people together, and making all feel welcome. That’s important, she says, as major companies such as P&G, Kroger, Fifth Third, and GE work to attract a diverse workforce that reflects their customers’ interests. She points out with pride that Cincinnati, since 2020, has ranked in the top 20 (No. 11 this year) by a major index for arts vibrancy among U.S. cities. Kintner draws a straight line between Cincinnati’s commitment to diversity in the arts and its future potential as a city on the rise.

The move toward more diversity and inclusion, she says, is evolutionary—not revolutionary. “The good news is that Cincinnati arts organizations have been doing this for a while,” she says. “This isn’t an ‘ah ha moment’ but a shared journey.”

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ERHAPS CINCINNATI’S arts evolution started in 1840 with the arrival of 19-year-old Robert Duncanson to what is now Mt. Healthy. By then, the booming region was already known for its nurturing of the arts as well as its better opportunities for advancement, relatively speaking, for Black citizens.

It was the city’s reputation as the “Athens of the West” that convinced Duncanson that his chance to be an artist lay here.

The self-taught artist focused many of his works on African American life along the Ohio River, and his stunning murals adorn the entrance walls of the Taft Museum of Art. The museum also features a Duncanson-Artist-in-Residence program that’s highly competitive and draws applicants from all over the country.

Fast forward more than 100 years

LOOK DEEPER

The Taft Museum of Art opens an exhibition of African artists in February, which will include Peter Clarke’s 1960 painting “That Evening Sun Goes Down” (opposite page).

Kevin Auzenne’s “Cuisine Classique” (below) is part of Black & Brown Faces at the Cincinnati Art Museum.

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TAKEAWAYS THE ARTS ATTRACT TALENT Cincinnati’s nationally-recognized commitment to the arts reflects a community that invites expression and creativity, attributes that attract and excite young professionals, says Duke Energy’s Rhonda Whitaker Hurtt. Recognizing and celebrating the region’s changing demographics can help companies recruit talented people of color to their rosters.

MORE ATTENTION ArtsWave CEO Alecia Kintner points out with pride that Cincinnati was ranked No. 11 this year by a major index for arts vibrancy among U.S. cities. She draws a straight line between our commitment to diversity in the arts and our potential as a city on the rise.

to the 1960s, when the civil rights movement captured American headlines and riots broke out in dozens of cities, including Cincinnati. From the ashes of those disturbances came the anti-poverty Model Cities program, which in Cincinnati led to the creation of the Arts Consortium, based in the West End and led by artist and political activist Robert O’Neal.

“Arts is almost always activism,” says Toilynn O’Neal Turner, his daughter. “It’s a ‘see me, hear me’ moment from the artist when you look at a piece of art. It’s especially true when it’s Black art, which has always talked about our story.”

Turner, one of the city’s leading advocates for art education, is president of the Robert O’Neal Multicultural Arts Center (ROMAC), which she hopes—with the community’s financial support—will refurbish and activate the old Regal Theater in the West End to house a Black cultural center. “I grew up around both the arts and activism,” she says. “I could be down at City Hall at a protest one

day and in the trenches painting a mural the next.”

Turner stands at the intersection of arts and education, consulting for several art museums locally and around the country and, for 22 years, leading St. Ursula Academy’s diversity efforts. She arranges Fountain Square entertainment nights for Visit Cincy. As executive director of the Queen City Foundation, she’s a fierce advocate for rebuilding hope in the West End one student at a time.

And she founded and teaches visual arts to teenagers at the West End’s Lincoln Recreation Center.

When I meet Turner at the Rusk Kitchen & Bar in Walnut Hills, she’s dealing with a crisis: Two of her students were among the six people shot in a drive-by the night before on Jones Street in the West End. She’s coping with the pain and the frustration of a community that, she says, needs hope.

Art, she believes, can help.

Turner speaks about art not just as a celebration of culture and beauty but as a system. “Art provides a release

SEE ME, HEAR ME

Toilynn O’Neal Turner is rebuilding hope in the West End one student and family at a time.

ART HELPS BUILD HOPE Toilynn O’Neal Turner is coping with the pain and the frustration of a West End community that, she says, needs hope.

Art, she believes, can help. She’s leading an effort to refurbish and activate the neighborhood’s old Regal Theater as the Robert O’Neal Multicultural Arts Center.

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and changes people,” she says, “but the system of providing access and building capacity for an audience in a community? That’s as important.”

She envisions ROMAC and the 109-year-old Regal Theater building as the focal point for starting a new arts system in the local Black community, built in the mold of her late father’s Arts Consortium. The project earned a $1 million capital grant from the state of Ohio last year, but it requires matching funds and then some. A capital campaign, helped by the experts at Ignite Philanthropy, is underway with a goal of raising $2 million by April.

“We’re really starting from scratch because the Arts Consortium has been gone since 1972 and this building (the Regal) has been vacant for more than 30 years,” says Turner. “But when I go in there, I see it from my childhood lens, where my spot was.

It’s got so many possibilities. But I need a friend.”

Turner has a friend in ArtsWave, which contributed $15,000 for ROMAC programming this year—a part of its $100,000 grant package annually awarded since 2015 to promote Black-led arts and culture. But Kintner, Beaulieu, and Turner agree that the corporate and philanthropic community needs to think about expanding its commitment to the arts by supporting what Turner calls “the mom-and-pop art shops.”

It’s the smaller neighborhood arts organizations with the thinner budgets that can directly impact the communities in need, she says. Momand-pop groups succeed via word of mouth, friend-to-friend connections, and participating organizations such as local churches and ArtsWave itself.

“More than 300 people came to our Sanaa Festival this year (Sanaa is

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OPEN TO INTERPRETATION Michael Thompson’s “The Tear” is on display at Mount St. Joseph University through mid-February.

‘art’ in Swahili) from all over the city,” says Turner. “We had no billboards, no marketing, nothing. We do a lot with so little. Imagine what we could do with just a few more resources.”

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N THE CANVAS AT THE entrance to Michael Thompson’s Mt. Washinton studio, your eyes are drawn to a single tear beginning its steady roll down the right side of a man’s brown nose.

Another rivulet has formed from the opposite corner, rolling down the side of his face. It seems like the tears your eyes expel when suddenly introduced to a blast of cold air. You see just his eyes and bushy eyebrows. Are these tears of joy? Grief ? Despair? Or is he just cold?

Thompson chuckles at my question, and the answer is the answer any artist might give: It depends on your perspective. What you see is what it is to you.

“The Tear” will be part of Thomp-

son’s art exhibition, entitled The Kool-Aid Wino, from mid-January to mid-February at Mount St. Joseph University. This multimedia collection is his first gallery show as a professional. It won’t be his last.

His work is not political, says Thompson. Art is allowed to be merely aesthetic, offering beauty, joy, and mystery to the viewer. It’s a story told on canvas. If “The Tear,” to you, tells the joyful story of an enslaved man gaining his freedom, that’s a political message you as a viewer built.

Thompson keeps his thoughts about “The Tear” to himself, saying only that he rejects the Black artist archetype of “creating a certain kind of art we’re supposed to create.”

I give “The Tear” another long look, and I’m still not sure. “That’s good,’’ he laughs. “It means I’ve done my job.”

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A Different Spin on County Government

REGIONAL LEADERS GET A FIRST-HAND LOOK AT COUNTY EXECUTIVE SYSTEMS IN NORTHERN OHIO.

BY DAVID HOLTHAUS

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ore than 15 years ago ( July 28, 2008, to be exact), a tipping point occurred in Ohio’s largest county. Armed with search warrants, more than 100 federal agents fanned out across Cuyahoga County and its major city, Cleveland, as a wide-ranging, year-long corruption investigation suddenly broke into public view.

The investigation revealed an ingrained pay-to-play culture in county government and beyond. Ultimately, more than 70 government officials—employees, contractors, business leaders, and even two judges—were convicted in a case that took years to resolve.

The biggest catch in the federal net was Cuyahoga County Commissioner Jimmy Dimora, who essentially ran politics as a corrupt enterprise for years through bribes, kickbacks, junkets, and home remodeling work in exchange for doling out county jobs and contracts. A jury convicted Dimora of more than 30 corruption charges and delivered a 28-year sentence. He was released from federal prison in June 2023 I L LU S T R AT I O N BY C H A P O R N E A

after serving 11 years.

The episode was so shocking that one year after the raid, the citizens of Cuyahoga County voted to overhaul their local government, approving a groundbreaking change to a structure led by a single elected County Executive. Cuyahoga became only the second Ohio county to be governed by an office that might be compared to a county mayor. Eighty-six of Ohio’s 88 counties are governed by the system that’s in effect in Hamilton, Butler, Clermont, and Warren counties: a three-member elected board of commissioners.

Advocates of the County Executive government structure say it can be more efficient, can lead more quickly to tangible results, fosters collaboration among community leaders, and enhances the accountability of local government to voters. “It gives the executive an opportunity to work with the public to cast a vision,” says Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronayne.

In October, a group of Cincinnati regional leaders received a firsthand introduction to the County Executive system. The Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber sponsored a Leadership Exchange trip to Cuyahoga County and to Summit County—the other governed by a County Executive—a trip that included learning sessions with the leaders of both counties and briefings on how the system is working in those Northeast Ohio locales.

“It was really valuable to meet and hear from peer-city leaders, particularly ones with similar challenges with growth, aging infrastructure, and aging population,” says Anne Sesler, a consultant and vice chair of the Hamilton County Democratic Party who attended the trip. “We have the same goals of growing our regions, so it was interesting to hear about their approach.”

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HE CITIZENS OF Cuyahoga and Summit elect a County Executive to fouryear terms, and the positions have no term limits. The systems in the two counties are structured somewhat differently. In Cuyahoga, the executive enjoys considerable sway over the county as a whole by appointing other county office holders such as the Treasurer, the Clerk of Courts, and even the Sheriff.

That kind of arrangement allows the executive to appoint qualified people who may not have the stomach for running a political campaign for public office, says Ronayne. “It takes a bit of the politics out of the jobs of the professional offices,” he says. “Not every accountant is a retail politician, but he or she might make a good Treasurer. It does professionalize government.”

Cuyahoga is the only Ohio county where the Sheriff is appointed rather than elected, putting the County Executive there in charge of not only the administrative offices but also law enforcement and jail operations. Ronayne likens the arrangement to city police chiefs in Ohio, where the chief is appointed by the mayor. “My philosophy with law enforcement is to let them do their job,” Ronayne says. “We have conversations about budget, but I let the leader do his job.”

But the arrangement hasn’t been without controversy. The sheriff-executive reporting structure has been blamed in part on the turnover in the sheriff ’s office, as six Cuyahoga sheriffs have resigned in the last 12 years, the last departing in February 2023.

The organizational structure in Summit County is different, as the Sheriff, Clerk of Courts, Treasurer, and Engineer are independently elected— as in all other Ohio counties—rather than appointed by the County Exec-

utive. Prosecutors in both counties are elected. The County Executives must work with a County Council but do not answer directly to councilmembers, only to voters.

Summit County Executive Ilene Shapiro, who was a business leader before entering politics, says the structure allows her to manage county government more like a business. “I see my role to be very strategic, very facilitative, very relationship driven,” she says.

“This looks more like an enterprise structure with a council. I liken it to the council being the board of directors and me being the CEO running the operation on a day-to-day basis.”

That businesslike operation sounds like a far cry from the way Summit County government operated in the 1970s. A string of scandals involving county officials brought Geraldo Rivera and his national TV program 20/20 to the county’s biggest city, Akron, to investigate. The most salacious story involved a judge who was accused of trading leniency in his court for sexual favors.

There was also the county auditor who went to prison on federal corruption charges, a sheriff who pleaded guilty to dereliction of duty and resigned, and a police captain and a coroner’s investigator who pleaded guilty to mishandling confiscated guns. On top of all that, the county’s budget was plagued by cost overruns and a bloated payroll.

Earlier efforts at reform had failed, but this corruption was finally too much. A group of corporate leaders, with the help of The Akron Beacon Journal editorial board and some elected officials, pushed for a change from a three-person commissioner form of government to a County Executive.

Their campaign slogan was disarmingly simple: “Vote yes on Issue 2: It’s WINTER 2023 REALM 45

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got to be better.”

The campaign succeeded. Summit County voters in 1979 approved a new county charter and a County Executive government system.

Although the change in both counties grew out of scandal, both office holders say the structure has provided for more local control, better efficiency, more professionalism, and less politics.

It also provides for better accountability in the eyes of the voters, says Herb Asher, a professor emeritus of political science at Ohio State University.

“WHEN YOU HAVE SO MANY ELECTED, INDEPENDENT OFFICERS, FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF THE CITIZEN, IT’S A LITTLE DIFFICULT TO ASSIGN BLAME OR RESPONSIBILITY TO ANY ONE PERSON,” SAYS HERB ASHER.

“When you have so many elected, independent officers, from the perspective of the citizen, it’s a little difficult to assign blame or responsibility to any one person,” he says. “But a County Executive has responsibility for making sure that the county appointees are doing their job and making sure there aren’t too many misdeeds going on.

And if there are problems, it’s easier to assign responsibility.”

Both county executives point to achievements they say were accomplished in a timelier way because their counties were governed by a single

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executive.

Ronayne, who took office in January 2023, describes the creation of a new Department of Housing and Community Development to focus on affordable housing and supporting unhoused people. He’s pledged to reduce homelessness by 25 percent by 2028. He also hired a Senior Adviser of Transportation to be the point person in working with other county departments on transportation policy, services, and infrastructure. “We addressed housing and transportation at the administrative level, and we’re really proud we got that done,” he says.

In September, Ronayne announced the creation of a Women’s Health Advisory Council to recommend ways to reduce racial disparities and improve access to health care. That same month, Cuyahoga County Council agreed to buy land for a new jail and public services campus, an issue that’s been a political hot potato for five years.

Others cite Cleveland’s lakefront development as a signature achievement. The development, which has built a new football stadium and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and remains ongoing, preceded Ronayne’s time in office, but he was closely involved in the efforts when he was Planning Director for the city of Cleveland.

In Summit County, Shapiro points to her early action to sue corporations involved in making and distributing opioids. In 2017, she declared a countywide state of emergency over the opioid addiction crisis and then filed a civil lawsuit accusing more than a dozen manufacturers and distributors of negligence and deceptive

marketing practices. The county eventually received more than $100 million in settlements, which has been used for addiction and recovery services.

The declaration of a public health emergency opened up funding, allowed for coordination among the county’s various agencies, and enabled the use of the county emergency services command center as a response hub, says Shapiro. “We went to County Council and said, We’re going to do this and you need to be OK with it,” she recalls.

“And they were all OK with it.”

When negotiations began with the drug corporations, she kept council informed but told them she would need to move quickly and couldn’t seek council approval for every agreement.

“We were able to move as quickly as we needed to do because they had confidence in me,” says Shapiro. “The structure enables the ability to move as fast as you need to move to get some stuff done.”

She also cited the county’s quick action in getting federal funding from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act into the hands of the people and businesses who needed it after the pandemic shut down businesses and schools and threatened hospitals. Summit County received $94 million from the act, and Shapiro’s office worked with the Greater Akron Chamber and other organizations to distribute the funding where it was needed—including to COVID testing, payroll for police and first responders in communities across the county, schools, rent and mortgage assistance, small businesses, and arts organizations.

“We sat down and looked at what we needed, and we got that money into folks’ hands as quickly as they needed it,” says Shapiro.

She says her office works closely with political leadership in Akron as well as with 30 other municipalities.

“We work across party and geographic lines to get things done,” she says. In 2019, she launched Summit4Success, an economic development program to encourage businesses to relocate to the county.

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HAPIRO, A DEMOCRAT, is the first woman in Summit County (and in Ohio) to hold the County Executive office. Previously a small-business owner and corporate executive, she ran for County Council at the urging of local officeholders and was one of the top vote-getters. She became council president, and when

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the County Executive died in office she was appointed to replace him.

Voters elected Shapiro to the office in 2016 and re-elected her in 2020. She has announced plans to run for a third full term in 2024.

Ronayne, also a Democrat, began his political career as a campaign manager and planning manager for Cleveland Mayor Jane Campbell. From 2005 to 2021, he was president of University Circle Inc., a nonprofit organization similar to Cincinnati’s Uptown Consortium, which leads community development in Cleveland’s University Circle neighborhood. He ran for County Executive for the first time in 2022 and won with 64 percent of the vote.

While Cuyahoga and Summit re-

main the only Ohio counties with the single executive form of government, the structure has been studied elsewhere in the state. In 2016, a group called Dayton Together proposed changing the governmental structure of that city and surrounding Montgomery County. The group included former Ohio Lieutenant Governor Paul Leonard and former Montgomery County Commissioner Dan Foley, who proposed a structure with an elected County Executive and County Council. A key part of its plan was a merger of Dayton and Montgomery County governments, which may have contributed to its failure. The proposal was withdrawn later that year after opposition from minority-led citizen

A SHARED VISION

Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronayne says the office “gives the executive an opportunity to work with the public to cast a vision” for large projects such as a convention center.

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TAKEAWAYS DIFFERENT APPROACHES Voters in both Cuyahoga (Cleveland) and Summit (Akron) counties remade their government structures following political scandals, creating an elected County Executive and 11-member County Council. Ohio’s other 86 counties retain a three-member County Board of Commissioners.

LESS POLITICS In Cuyahoga, the executive appoints other county office holders such as the Treasurer, Clerk of Courts, and Sheriff.

County Prosecutor remains an elected office. County Executive Chris Ronayne says, “It takes a bit of the politics out of the jobs of the professional offices.”

MANAGE LIKE A BUSINESS All county offices in Summit are elected, and the County Executive must work with County Council but doesn’t answer directly to councilmembers, only to voters. Summit County Executive Ilene Shapiro says the structure allows her to manage county government more like a business.

groups and the possibility of legal challenges.

The experience in Montgomery County illustrates the obstacles that can arise in proposing a government makeover. Dozens of elected county officials, organized labor groups, and prominent members of Dayton’s Black community denounced the idea, saying it would limit the authority and independence of elected county officials and reduce them to administrative appointees.

“It goes back to the question of centralizing power,” says OSU’s Asher of the chief argument against the County Executive system. “On the one hand, you can argue it’s more likely that you get something through with an executive form of government. The flip side of that would be: Do you want to make it easier to get things through?”

While Ohio grew up with a three-member county commissioner form of government, Kentucky has utilized a single executive structure since the Commonwealth was founded. The Kentucky of the 18th Century was a frontier where the Justice of the Peace was the most important local official, and his responsibilities included administrative matters. In its Constitution of 1850, Kentucky provided for a County Judge to preside over the County Court, which in addition to hearing appeals from local justices of the peace also served as the county’s legislative and administrative authority.

Over the years, Kentucky’s legislature added executive and administrative functions to the County Judge roles. In the mid-1970s, the General Assembly stripped away judicial responsibilities but clarified the role to be the county’s chief executive officer, changing the title to Judge/Executive.

In Northern Kentucky, Steve

Pendery has served as Campbell County Judge/Executive for 25 years, Gary Moore has led Boone County for 25 years, and Kris Knochelmann has led Kenton County for nine years.

In the two Ohio counties, as well as in Kentucky, the elected executives are not absolute rulers. Far from it. They still must work with elected county boards, similar to how a mayor works with a city council. In Cuyahoga and Summit, County Executives serve alongside an 11-member council,

“TO BE HONEST, THIS FORM OF GOVERNMENT IS ONLY AS GOOD AS THE PEOPLE WHO ARE AT THE HELM AND THE PEOPLE DOING THE WORK,” SAYS SUMMIT COUNTY EXECUTIVE ILENE SHAPIRO.

which puts an emphasis on a person who can govern efficiently but also collaboratively by managing multiple constituencies and stakeholders while also being productive.

“For me, it’s always about the people,” says Marcus Thompson, an executive with TriVersity Construction who attended the Leadership Exchange trip.

“Is it the system that’s put in place, or is it the people that make it work?”

That’s a thought shared by Summit County Executive Shapiro. “To be honest with you, this government is only as good as the people who are at the helm and the people doing the work,” she says.

P H O T O G R A P H C O U R T E SY C U YA H O G A C O U N T Y

A KICK OF ENERGY Cuyahoga County’s new government model gets credit for streamlining lakefront development in Cleveland, including the Browns stadium.

WINTER 2023 REALM 49

ASK ME ABOUT

ROB ZIMMERMAN CEO CINCINNATI COUNTRY DAY SCHOOL ASK ME ABOUT What it means for Cincinnati Country Day School to be recently ranked the region’s No. 1 private school by Niche.

KAI LEWARS PRINCIPAL AND FOUNDER KAIKER DEVELOPMENT AND CONSTRUCTION

ARE THERE ADVANTAGES TO BEING A SMALLER FIRM IN A COMPETITIVE CONSTRUCTION MARKET? As a team

and credentials similar to some of the larger commercial companies— without the overhead.

We are also of 14 professionals, we have larger and more structured than no intention of growing beyond most smaller owner-operator 20 employees. companies, We’re small yet priding ourhighly orgaselves in delivnized due to ering high-level our processes and procedures communication that’s still peras well as our team’s different sonable. That balance allows roles, working our team to foexperiences,

50 REALM WINTER 2023

ASK ME ABOUT The advantages of being a smaller firm in the Cincinnati market

cus on leading with value.

HOW DO YOU FEEL DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS POSITIVELY IMPACT THE COMMUNITY?

There is an ever-revolving need for development and construction projects. We pride ourselves on “revitalizing the past and building the future.” Part of the reason we have a focus

in community development is because of the impact we see in our clients and the people of the community enjoying the spaces we’ve created.

WHAT WAS YOUR MOTIVATION TO UPROOT FROM OREGON IN 2016 AND RELOCATE YOUR BUSINESS TO CINCINNATI?

Cincinnati’s real estate market provided

a lower cost of entry and showed many positive signs of growth. In an effort to create generational wealth, I knew I had to take a leap of faith and explore what Cincinnati had to offer and work to my full potential.

–ELIZABETH MILLER WOOD

HOW WILL THE NEW STUDIOS ADVANCE THE MEDIA AND COMMUNITY CAPABILITIES OF WVXU/WGUC? Our new facil-

ity is designed to facilitate an expanded production capability for both news/ public affairs efforts and live music productions.

New, larger studios will allow us to generate more interviews, news coverage, and enterprise reporting. Our stateof-the-art performance studio and gathering space will feature student, professional, and amateur musicians as well as political debates, lectures, mobile art installations, and public meetings. A new podcast booth will be available for public use free of charge.

HOW WAS THE LOCATION IN EVANSTON SELECTED? We

sought a location in a vibrant, diverse neighborhood, one where CPR could create a vibrant,

P H O T O G R A P H C O U R T E SY K A I K E R D E V E LO P MPE HN OT TAONGDR AC POHN SBY T R TUKCTTKI OT NK

WHAT DOES A NO. 1 RANKING SIGNIFY IN TERMS OF THE STUDENT, FACULTY, AND PARENT EXPERIENCE AT CCDS? It’s certainly flattering, and it reaffirms our belief that Country Day provides the finest 18-monthto-18-years education in the city. But the truth is we don’t get too carried away with rankings.

We measure ourselves much more on the quality of our relation-

dynamic presence. We have a close relationship with Xavier University, since WVXU was once owned by XU. We hope this location will expand our internship partnership with the university as well as allow us to better tap the wealth of knowledge, talent, and expertise among the faculty.

WHAT ROLE DOES PUBLIC RADIO PLAY IN THE CINCINNATI COMMUNITY? Cincinnati Public Radio

is the trusted independent source of journalism, music, and culture, empowering a vibrant, engaged, and informed community. We measure success not only in terms of financial support generated by our community or of audience size and composition, but by advancing the vibrancy, civic literacy, and musical tradition, appreciation, and diversity of the Cincinnati region.

ships than the results of any rankings.

nity. But to me it’s our exceptional teachers that make the difference.

WHAT DO YOU There’s nothing FEEL ARE THE more powerful STRONGEST DIFFERENTIATORS OF in education than a talentA CCDS EDUCAed teacher TION COMPARED TO OTHER PRIVATE who knows, nurtures, and INSTITUTIONS? inspires a stuFirst-time dent. visitors often comment on our campus WHAT MOTIVATED and our comYOU TO RETURN munity. We’re TO YOUR ALMA fortunate to MATER AS HEAD have a bucolic OF SCHOOL AFTER 60-acre camA LAW CAREER? pus in the heart A sense of of Indian Hill, gratitude. As and we create a an alumnus, I “second home” have personally environment experienced for our commu- the transfor-

mative effect of a Country Day education.

I feel fortunate to have a chance to steward that tradition of excellence for the next generation.

–E.M.W.

RICHARD EISWERTH PRESIDENT, GENERAL MANAGER, AND CEO CINCINNATI PUBLIC RADIO ASK ME ABOUT Breaking ground in August for the new WVXU/WGUC studios near Xavier University.

–E.M.W.

PH HE AO DT OS GH RO AT PCHOSU CR OT EUSY R T ETSY K T (KT O P ) C I N C I N N AT I C O U N T RY D AY / ( B O T T O M ) C I N C I N N AT I P U B L I C R A D I O

WINTER 2023 REALM 51

PHOTO ESSAY

S SWEET DR ARE MADE THE WEST Aglamesis Bros’ new, charmingly lo factory expands capacity while ma traditions.

–SARAH M. MULLINS

PHOTOGRAPHS BY HATSUE

52 REALM WINTER 2023

Aglamesis unveiled a new logo and branding in the fall, replacing its iconic gold chocolate box with an elevated pink stripe look that’s reflected at the retail stores, too.

WINTER 2023 REALM 53

PHOTO ESSAY

A SWEET DAY IN A GROWING NEIGHBORHOOD

Aglamesis Bros moved its candy manufacturing from above the flagship Oakley store to a brand new production facility on Central Avenue in the West End. President Randy Young says the operation outgrew the original space. “We chose historic West End because it’s in the downtown area,” he says. “This neighborhood is just exploding, and we’re very happy to be a part of its rejuvenation.”

IN WITH THE OLD

Original equipment was transferred to the West End, including copper kettles that simmer toffee ingredients. Once the toffee reaches the ideal temperature, it’s then poured onto a cooling table (right below), scored, and broken into bit-sized pieces.

AND IN WITH THE NEW

Marble tables were initially used to set the toffee in Oakley, but the company moved to modernized cooling tables that constantly have water flowing through the inside. Marble tended to lose its cooling ability after just a few batches of toffee.

54 REALM WINTER 2023

CHOCOLATE COVERED EVERYTHING

One of Aglamesis’ specialties is hand-dipped cherries (left), which get their juicy flavor from a candy coating that triggers a natural chemical reaction. “Everybody asks, How do you get that syrup around the cherry when I bite into it? The secret is it’s the natural juices,” says Young, the third generation to lead the family-owned company since its founding in 1908 by brothers Thomas and Nicholas Aglamesis.

THE REAL STUFF

Oreos, almonds, peanut clusters ... you name it, and Aglamesis workers cover it in chocolate. “We use real chocolate,” says Young. “There aren’t too many of us left who use nothing but that.” To avoid hardening, melted chocolate moves constantly on a machine that resembles a chocolate fountain.

PHOTO ESSAY

CHOCOLATE DREAMS

Caramels are another candy gliding down the new conveyor belts daily (above). They’re hand-placed and spaced out so the cascade of chocolate can smother each piece in a generous, even coating. The caramels then solidify on a journey down a cooling table to be inspected.

CHECKED TWICE

Individual chocolate candies are inspected before they make it to the signature pink striped Aglamesis boxes. If they don’t make the cut, the misfits are bundled as “rejects” and sold by the bag. Pieces that make the cut are hand-packed and/or individually wrapped.

WRAPPED AND READY

Signature candy boxes and bags are shipped to gift recipients or sent to the two Aglamesis Bros retail locations (Oakley and Montgomery) and other retail outlets in gift-ready packaging. “It’s been 115 years of a wonderful legacy for us to be operating with,” says Young. “We hope with this new facility we’ll be able to go on for another 115 years.”

56 REALM WINTER 2023

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