The P&G Politician
Cincinnati Councilwoman Amy Young Murray caught the traveling bug in high school but her passion for politics came years later. Although she first served on city council in 2011, she was elected in 2013 as the first P&G alum to serve on city council and is the only female Republican who serves as an urban city council member in Ohio. “From a young age I wanted to live abroad and speak another language. I always had wanderlust,” says Murray, Cincinnati’s chair of the Major Transportation and Regional Cooperation Committee, vice chair of Budget and Finance and Economic Growth and Infrastructure committees, and a member of the Cincinnati Planning Commission. As soon as she got to high school, she talked the principal into starting an exchange student program and she was the first student to go overseas. By chance, the almost 16-year-old Murray lived in Kyoto, Japan, for a year, which ignited her passion to have a business relationship with Japan. Four years after she was hired by P&G out of college, her knowledge of the Japanese culture and language secured her a spot in the Japan Division in Cincinnati. “I traveled 100 days a year to Japan and Asia,” says Murray. “I loved it.” Murray was with P&G for 14 years un-
til she decided to start her own company, The Japan Consulting Group, and lessen her travel time to take care of her two young boys at home. And like a lot of P&Gers, she was involved in her community. “I tried to do things that impacted my kids’ school and my neighborhood. I hadn’t thought about politics at all,” says Murray, who was also a past president of the Hyde Park Neighborhood Council. Then four years ago, things changed. “I was just frustrated with what was going on in the city, with our budget and the economic issues, and I thought I could help with that,” says Murray, who has her B.A. in Economics from Arizona State. She also attended graduate school to study international business. “When things come up like earnings tax increases, I often put on my Procter hat and think about trying to attract top talent here,” says Murray. “When you want other Fortune 500 companies to come here, how could you attract the business and what doesn’t help?”
late 1980s. On Aug. 10, 2014, they dedicated a bronze statue to Flory on the Lindner Family Tennis Center’s grounds in Mason, a Cincinnati suburb. He also received the Arthur Ashe Humanitarian of the Year award for his humility and willingness to help others in 1996.
A Beneficial Event
Honoring a Local Legend Former P&G executive Paul Flory made Cincinnati a major stop on the ATP World Tour. On Jan. 2, 2013, the 90-year-old, Western & Southern Tournament chairman lost his fight to Alzheimer’s disease. “Paul was known throughout the ATP Tour as being a kind, gentle man with great vision, and was extremely well-respected by his peers around the globe,” says Elaine Bruening, CEO of the W&S Open and Flory’s coworker at P&G in the
In 2006, business magnate Warren Buffett announced he was donating a significant portion of his fortune to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. But after a year, no one was talking about it, and P&G alumna Anne Chambers wanted to make some noise. “I thought it was too big a deal to let it go by the wayside,” says the CEO of advertising agency Red 212 in Cincinnati. In response, Red 212 created the Bill and Warren Day event to raise awareness and engage businesses about how they can make a difference, and to celebrate those companies that were. At the event, a Monopoly board game, signed by Buffett, is auctioned off and the winner keeps it throughout the year. Then, it’s given back to auction off at the next Bill and Warren Day so another charity benefits. “I’ve always believed that business can and should be a force for change in the world,” Chambers says. ■
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