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CREATIVITY MEANS BUSINESS Local CEOs discuss the value of creative problem-solving and design thinking in the workplace.
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hanks to Columbus College of Art & Design’s expansive and diverse educational offerings, its graduates bring strong skill sets to a wide variety of industries. In Central Ohio, CCAD alumni are shaping sectors like finance, health care, retail, technology and more, while also impacting traditional creative and design industries. Columbus CEO spoke to four local CEOs whose companies have a long history of hiring CCAD graduates—Fran Horowitz of Abercrombie & Fitch Co., Jonathan Moody of Moody Nolan, Steve Steinour of Huntington Bancshares Inc. and Kirt Walker of Nationwide—about why CCAD alumni stand out and the importance of design thinking in the workplace. Can you talk about your organization’s relationship with CCAD, both in terms of hiring and other community partnerships you’ve collaborated on? Kirt Walker: Nationwide has enjoyed a long relationship with CCAD, its students and faculty. We currently have 33 CCAD graduates working at Nationwide, and we’ve also benefited from many CCAD students serving as interns over the
years. Several Nationwide leaders are currently adjunct faculty or mentors for students at the school. We appreciate that CCAD intentionally has a large number of adjunct faculty on staff to keep the education their students receive current. This reduces onboarding and training time for the companies who hire CCAD grads. You know they’re ready to go and will hit the ground running. Jonathan Moody: We have a number of CCAD grads that are active in the firm, in three or four different studios. We look to CCAD pretty often when it comes to certain skill sets—design,
PROJECT MANAGER Emma Frankart Henterly 62 E. Broad St., P.O. Box 1289, Columbus, Ohio 43216 614-540-8900
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DESIGN DIRECTOR Betsy Becker CONTRIBUTOR Brittany Moseley All photos are courtesy Columbus College of Art & Design.
Columbus College of Art & Design
communications, graphics, technology—that we’re looking for. I think in various forms, we’ve been a thoughtful partner with CCAD, both from a project [standpoint] but also [with] things that we want to see happen in the Columbus community that we know we need to collaborate on. What do CCAD grads bring to your organization? Steve Steinour: They’re just incredibly valuable to us to create a very user-friendly set of products and capabilities. Huntington has the No. 1 mobile app [in customer satisfaction
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