2018
From business leaders to politicians, those in power know that it is work to get to the top and a struggle to stay there. Challenges from opponents can present themselves at any time and then there’s always the next test, the next task, the next obstacle. Cincy’s 14th annual Power 100 list recognizes those people who hold and use the most clout to benefit the region. - BY THE EDITORS = New to the Top Ten
John Cranley
Carl H. Lindner III
City of Cincinnati, mayor.
FC Cincinnati, majority owner; American Financial Group, co-president & CEO.
The decision on FC Cincinnati’s bid to join Major League Soccer has gone into extra time with a final decision still awaited when this issue went to press but there’s no denying Lindner’s clout. It was his bankroll and influence that turned Cincinnati’s shaky professional soccer history into a finalist for a coveted MLS franchise. He and GM Jeff Berding have been faulted for a lack of transparency, but Lindner’s group has committed up to $350 million for the soccer-specific stadium if the city and county kick in infrastructure improvements. DAVID SORCHER
DAVID SORCHER
Rebounding from a primary loss to Yvette Simpson to win his second, four-year term as city’s top elected official, the mayor hit the ground running pushing through city council a commitment for a new FC Cincinnati stadium. He’s also attempted to exert authority over the Cincinnati Park Board by appointing a new chair triggering a legal challenge. In a speech marking the start of his new term, Cranley outlined ambitious goals to increase the city’s population, bring thousands of new jobs and convert the city’s power consumption to all-renewable energy by 2035.
Candace McGraw
Tom Williams
Cincinnati/Northern
North American
Kentucky International
Properties Inc., president
Airport, CEO.
& partner; Cincinnati Reds, co-
McGraw has led the turnaround at CVG, one of the region’s most important economic assets. Last year CVG landed long-sought Southwest Airlines, which launched service in June, and increased overall airline seat capacity about 18 percent with new and expanding low-cost new carriers. As a result, average ticket prices, long a sore point, have continued to decline. Passengers are now paying about $200 less than four years ago. The airport also has embarked on an aggressive economic development effort that includes Amazon Prime’s new $1.5 billion cargo hub.
Williams has been heavily involved in some of the region’s most important initiatives such as the business group pushing for a new Brent Spence Bridge; the formation of REDI , the Regional Economic Development Initiative; co-chairing the successful Cincinnati Preschool Promise levy campaign; and being a part of the steering committee for the Cincinnati Child Poverty Collaborative. He’s on the board of Cincinnati Center City Development Corporation (3CDC), Cintrifuse and others.
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principal owner/vice chairman.
Michael Fisher
Mike Brown
Cincinnati Children’s
Cincinnati Bengals, president
Hospital Medical Center,
Fisher sternly rejected an 11th hour effort by two city council members for $14 million more funding for Avondale housing and improvements as the price for securing city approval of the hospital’s major $650 million expansion. Council and most of the Cincinnati business community sided with the hospital in approving the expansion project, the largest in the hospital’s history that will include a new eight-story tower, additional parking and several hundred jobs.
and principal owner.
Power isn’t always about doing the popular thing , sometimes it ’s doing the opposite. In the face of the Bengals continuing on-field futility, Brown reached agreement to retain 15-year head coach Marvin Lewis for two more years despite a growing chorus clamoring for change. Brown’s low-key, stick-with it approach has been viewed as penny-pinching or not caring about winning. Those who know him say that’s not the case. They say his desire to win burns as bright as ever. Time will tell whether Brown’s faith in Lewis will be rewarded or not. DAVID SORCHER
president & CEO.
Neville G. Pinto
Robert H. Castellini
University of Cincinnati,
Cincinnati Reds, principal
president.
owner & CEO; Castellini
Pinto, who is completing his first year as UC’s 30th president, hasn’t been overly visible off campus but it’s hard to argue that he isn’t one of the region’s most important executives as head of the state’s second largest university, one of the region’s largest employers and a key player in the region’s business, medical and cultural community. Underscoring that fact, a recently released economic impact study for the Southwestern Ohio Council on Higher Education found UC has a $3.3 billion annual impact in southwest Ohio.
Co., chairman.
The Reds completed their fourth consecutive losing season in 2017, but Castellini remains optimistic, telling fans late last year that he thinks the team will be better in 2018 than many people expect. Castellini, recognized by the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber as a “Great Living Cincinnatian” in 2012, built his family’s produce business into a billion-dollar enterprise and been active in a number of community efforts. Time will tell if his belief in his team is accurate but the Reds have a lot of question marks including who’s in the starting rotation.
John F. Barrett
Julia Poston
Western & Southern
Ernst & Young, Cincinnati
Financial Group, chairman, president & CEO.
A perennial on the Power 1 0 0, B a rret t h as b e e n one of the cit y ’s most prominent and powerful business and community leaders for decades. Under his leadership, Western & Southern made an early investment in Over-theRhine when many thought it was foolhardy and he’s continued to make investments around the company’s downtown headquarters. Barrett also is one of the region’s biggest boosters of economic development, education, health care and the arts.
managing partner.
The first woman to lead EY’s Cincinnati office, Poston is co-chair of the Cincinnati Regional Business Committee and chair of the United Way of Greater Cincinnati’s board. In fact there’s hardly an organization in Cincinnati where she hasn’t had a leadership role. She’s on the board of the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber, Cintrifuse, REDI Cincinnati, the American Heart Association and the Cincinnati Museum Center. She’s also been a part of the ArtsWave Women’s Leadership Circle, the Cincinnati Child Poverty Collaborative steering committee and the Cincinnati Women’s Executive Forum.
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Those who didn’t make the top 10 are still important players in town. Below are the remaining 90, sorted by organization type. = New to this year’s list
BUSINESS
Stephen Hightower Hightowers Petroleum Co., president & CEO Steve Martenet Athem Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Ohio, president
Stuart Aitken 84.51, CEO
David L. Joyce GE Aviation, president & CEO
Neil Bortz Towne Properties, co-founder and principal
Eric Kearney Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky African-American Chamber of Commerce, president & CEO
Marty Brennaman Cincinnati Reds broadcaster Katie Brown Blackburn Cincinnati Bengals, executive vice president Willam P. Butler Corporex Cos., chairman and founder
Stephen G. Leeper Cincinnati Center City Development Corp. (3CDC), president & CEO James J. McGraw Jr. Keating Muething & Klekamp law firm, partner and CEO of KMK Consulting
Greg D. Carmichael Fifth Third Bancorp, president & CEO
Rodney McMullen Kroger Co., chairman & CEO; Cincinnati Business Committee, chair
Brent Cooper Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, president & CEO
Jill P. Meyer Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber, president & CEO
Bill Cunningham Radio/TV Talk Show host
Molly North Al. Neyer Inc., president & CEO; Findlay Market Corp., chair
W. Stuart Dornette Taft Stettinius & Hollister, partner; Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden, board chair Jocile Ehrlich Cincinnati Better Business Bureau, president
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James P. Henning Duke Energy, Ohio and Kentucky president
Mike Prescott US Bank, Cincinnati region, president Maribeth S. Rahe Fort Washington Investment Advisors, president & CEO
Scott D. Farmer Cintas Corp., CEO
Johnna Reeder Regional Economic Development Initiative (REDI) Cincinnati, president & CEO
Leigh Fox Cincinnati Bell Inc., president & CEO
Bobby Fisher Cincinnati Regional Business Committee, co-chair; Washing Systems Inc., CEO
S. Kay Geiger PNC Bank, Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky president
Carl Satterwhite RCF Group, president and co-founder
Charles H. Gerhardt III Government Strategies Group, president & founder
J. Michael Schlotman Kenton County Airport Board, chairman; Kroger Co. executive vice president & CFO
Christopher S. Habel Frost Brown Todd, member-in-charge
Larry Sheakley Sheakley Group, CEO
Gary Heiman Standard Textile Inc., president & CEO
Jamie Smith Cincinnati Business Courier, publisher
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David S. Taylor Procter & Gamble Co., president & CEO H. Lytle Thomas Heritage Bank, president & CEO Eddie Tyner USA Today Network, regional president (Enquirer Media) Matthew D. Van Sant Clermont County Chamber, president & CEO George H. Vincent Dinsmore & Shohl, managing partner & chairman Becky Wilber Union Centre Boulevard Merchants Association, president and owner of CTI Restaurants James Zimmerman Taft Stettinius & Hollister, Cincinnati partner-in-charge
E D U C AT I O N The Rev. Michael J. Graham Xavier University, president Laura Mitchell Cincinnati Public Schools, superintendent Monica Posey Cincinnati State Technical & Community College, president
Joseph T. Deters Hamilton County, prosecuting attorney Denise Driehaus Hamilton County Board of Commissioners, vice president George T. Glover Taft/Focused Capitol Solutions, managing director Eliot Isaac City of Cincinnati, police chief Kris Knochelmann Kenton County, Judge Executive Thomas Massie U.S. Representative, Kentucky’s 4th District Luke Messer U.S. House of Representatives, Indiana’s 6th District from Shelbyville Chris Monzel Hamilton County, Board of Commissioners Amy Murray Cincinnati City Council, member Jim Neil Hamilton County, sheriff Mark R. Policinski Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Governments, CEO Rob Portman United States Senator, from Ohio
Harry Snyder Great Oaks Career Campuses, president & CEO
Todd Portune Hamilton County Board of Commissioner, president
Ashish Vaidya Northern Kentucky University, incoming president 7/1/18
T.C. Rogers Butler County, Board of Commissioners and OKI Regional Council of Goverments, board president
G OV E R N M E N T & P O L I T I C S Harry Black, City of Cincinnati, city manager Tim Burke Hamilton County Democratic Party, chairman Steve Chabot U.S. Representative, Ohio First District Warren Davidson U.S. Representative, Ohio Eighth District
Chris Seelbach Cincinnati City Council, member P.G. Sittenfeld Cincinnati City Council, member Joshua A. Smith City of Hamilton, City Manager Alex Triantafilou Hamilton County Republican Party, chairman Brad Wenstrup U.S. Representative, Ohio Second District
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Timothy J. Maloney Carol Ann and Ralph V. Haile, Jr./U.S. Bank Foundation, president & CEO
NONPROFITS Laura N. Brunner Greater Cincinnati Redevelopment Authority, president & CEO
The Rev. Wendell Mettey Matthew 25 Ministries, president & founder Barbara Perez YWCA of Greater Cincinnati, president & CEO
Mark Clement TriHealth, president & CEO
Jorge Perez YMCA of Greater Cincinnati, president & CEO
Garren Colvin St. Elizabeth Healthcare, president & CEO
Elizabeth Pierce Cincinnati Museum Center, president & CEO
Alfonso Cornejo Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, president
Robert C. Reifsnyder United Way of Greater Cincinnati, president & CEO
Henry & Linda Fath Entrepreneur Fath and his wife made unprecedent $50 million gift to the Linder Center of Hope and have been involved in variety of community projects
The Most Rev. Dennis M. Schnurr Archdiocese of Cincinnati, archbishop
Most Rev. Roger J. Foys Diocese of Covington, bishop
Neil F. Tilow Talbert House, president & CEO
Ellen M. Katz Greater Cincinnati Foundation, president & CEO
Brian Tome Crossroads Church, senior pastor
Michael Keating The Christ Hospital, president & CEO Dr. Richard P. Lofgren UC Health, president & CEO
John Starcher Mercy Health, president & CEO
Dick Weiland Philanthropist John Pepper Procter & Gamble Co., retired chairman and CEO
ONES TO WATCH They may not be on this year’s Power 100, but here are some people to keep an eye on this year. Trey Grayson, Frost Brown Todd attorney, joined the firm’s Northern Kentucky office after three years as president of the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce. Grayson, known as a problem solver, served two terms as Kentucky’s Secretary of State.
State Sen. Steve Wilson, after a long career in banking culminating as CEO of Lebanon’s LCNB Corp., last year embarked on a second career in politics by being named to fill the Ohio 7th senate district seat vacated by Shannon Jones. Wilson plans to seek the seat, which represents all or parts of Butler, Warren and Hamilton counties, on his own this fall.
Dr. Karen Bankston, who late last year succeeded Lynn Marmer as executive director of the Cincinnati Child Poverty Collaborative, is a registered nurse, educator and administrator.
Thane Maynard, well-known director of the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden, wants Hamilton County Commissioners to allow a zoo levy increase on the May ballot. Will Fiona’s popularity help or hurt?
State Rep. Alicia Reece (D-Roselawn) is facing term limits this year after three terms in the Ohio House. She’s weighing her options including challenging Rep. Steve Chabot.
Aftab Pureval, Hamilton County Clerk of Courts, has cut costs and attempted to modernize practice at the clerk’s office as the first Democrat elected to the post in 100 years. That puts him at the top
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of the list as a good candidate for any number of other elected offices. Rob McDonald, partner at Taft Stettinius & Hollister, is a co-founder of The Brandery, the top-rated business accelerator and the key player in the city’s growing entrepreneurial community. Jimmy Gould, Cincinnati businessman and backer of Ohio’s 2015 unsuccessful marijuana legalization campaign, wants to put another measure legalizing recreational use and treating it much like alcohol before voters this year. Wade Walcutt, new director of the Cincinnati Park Board, overseas a park system that includes the Smale Riverfront Park and Washington Park in Over-the-Rhine but also faces a big maintenance backlog in the face of the failed 2015 levy.