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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS
NOVEMBER 21 - 27, 2011
THE IN CROWD: Civic leaders/newsmakers Deb Janik
Nathan Kelly
Lillian Kuri
Class of 2004 Then: Chief of staff to Cleveland Mayor Jane Campbell Now: Senior vice president, Greater Cleveland Partnership When Deb Janik left Cleveland City Hall early in 2005, Crain’s was disappointed because, an editorial in the paper said, “She was among the few public officials in Cleveland who understood how to work with business to promote economic development.” Fortunately, Ms. Janik was taking her experience as Mayor Jane Campbell’s right hand, and her earlier experience in the city’s finance department putting together bond deals, only a few blocks from City Hall as she became vice president for regional development at the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority. The Broadview Heights native wasn’t there long, but it was long enough to begin putting together the financial pieces that have become the Flats East Bank project. In October 2005, Ms. Janik became senior vice president for real estate and business development at the Greater Cleveland Partnership. There, she manages all of GCP’s business development and real estate activities. She also works with GCP’s Cleveland Development Advisors, which raises privatesector capital for local economic development efforts. Most recently, Ms. Janik has been working with the Group Plan Commission, raising private investment for Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson’s plan to redo Public Square.
Class of 2010 Then: Planning director, city of Lakewood Now: Deputy chief of staff, Cuyahoga County Department of Development My, what a difference a year can make. At this time in 2010, a 33-year-old Mr. Kelly was serving as director of planning and development for the city of Lakewood. However, conversation in civic circles already was swirling around what would be next for Mr. Kelly in light of the election just a few weeks before of Lakewood’s mayor, Ed FitzGerald, to the new post of Cuyahoga County executive. Would he follow his boss into county government, which was reeling from an ongoing public corruption scandal, to help with its transformation under a new charter? The answer would be yes. Mr. Kelly is Mr. FitzGerald’s trusted right hand who formally carries the title of deputy chief of staff for the county’s Department of Development. One of his key jobs is developing programs that the county will use to provide businesses with loans, grants and other incentives through a $100 million fund that the county plans to establish. “Up until now, the county didn’t have the means to participate in a meaningful way” in business attraction efforts, he told us just last month. The fund should change that situation.
Class of 2002 Then: Director, Cleveland Public Art Now: Director of special projects, The Cleveland Foundation You could say Lillian Kuri has made good use of her education, and you wouldn’t be wrong. Ms. Kuri holds a master’s degree in architecture and urban design from Harvard University as well as a bachelor’s degree in architecture from Kent State University. For the last four-and-a-half years, she has served as director of special projects for The Cleveland Foundation, and has focused most of her efforts during that time on revitalization of Cleveland’s University Circle neighborhood. When we profiled her in 2002 for that year’s edition of Forty Under 40, a 32-year-old Ms. Kuri was director of Cleveland Public Art, a nonprofit dedicated to involving the public in the process of creating unique public spaces in the city. She perhaps is best known during that stint for fighting the battle to incorporate bike lanes and a promenade as part of an update of the Detroit-Superior Bridge. In recent times, she has worked to revitalize the residential neighborhoods surrounding University Circle in order to play off $2 billion in new construction by institutions such as the Cleveland Museum of Art and University Hospitals. “This is a moment in time where Cleveland is making huge investments,” she said in a 2007 interview. “We need a deliberate strategy in the area to leverage those dollars.”
PlayhouseSquare Partners salutes 20 years of Forty Under 40 alumni.
The young professional’s group at PlayhouseSquare playhousesquare.org/partners
20 YEARS OF CRAIN’S STAFFERS Stan Bullard Photographed: 1991 Then and now: Real estate reporter In his words: Some say Northeast Ohio’s real estate market changes little compared to other U.S. regions. I disagree. Consider Cleveland at Forty Under 40’s debut: East Fourth Street was a backwater. Few lived downtown. Flats nightspots and plans were the talk of the town. We were also in a realty downturn. But it pales compared to recent carnage.
Nancy Lesic Class of 1998 Then: Press secretary, Cleveland Mayor Michael R. White Now: CEO, Lesic & Camper Communications Anyone who ever crossed the path of Mike White when he was mayor of Cleveland knows that he did not suffer fools, so it is a high compliment that Nancy Lesic, at age 25, was selected to be his press secretary — and still held the job when we profiled her four years later. “Explaining public policy is not an easy job, particularly in a political environment where every answer is scrutinized,” Ms. Lesic told us back then. “But I’m proud that I have never lied and I never guessed at an answer.” Since 2002, Ms. Lesic has been applying her political and communications savvy to the operation of her own public relations agency that has focused on public affairs. She isn’t as visible as she was back in her City Hall days, but Ms. Lesic repeatedly is the guiding hand for many local organizations in their high-profile dealings with the media. In just the last year alone, she handled media relations for the Cleveland Browns as they announced their plans to work with the city to create a waterfront neighborhood around Browns Stadium, and she helped orchestrate the announcement of the best-kept secret in town — the decision by American Greetings Corp. to locate its headquarters in Westlake.
Steve Millard Class of 2000 Then: Executive director, Council of Smaller Enterprises Now: President and executive director, Council of Smaller Enterprises Strategic thinker may be the best two-word way to describe Steve Millard, who for a dozen years has been executive director of the 15,000member Council of Smaller Enterprises. As we wrote of a then-32-year-old Mr. Millard in 2000, he developed his skills as a business strategist during five years with global management and technology consulting firm Andersen Consulting. He’d join COSE in 1997 as director of its growth strategies program, a position in which he was responsible for sales, customer service, member services and product development. A year after assuming COSE’s helm, Mr. Millard would lead a strategic planning
effort that would result in a plan calling for the group to stake out a greater advocacy role on public policy issues of importance to the broader community. “There’s a strong recognition that the status quo is not acceptable,” COSE’s departing chairman, Robert Smith, said back in December 2001 when the plan was unveiled. In the intervening decade, COSE under Mr. Millard’s guidance has stayed true to that enhanced advocacy role, as seen by its endorsement in fall 2009 of the ultimately successful effort to change the form of Cuyahoga County government amid a broad public corruption scandal.
Fred Nance Class of 1991 Then: Partner, Squire, Sanders & Dempsey Now: Regional managing partner, Squire, Sanders & Dempsey; General counsel, Cleveland Browns Twenty years ago, when he was profiled in our first Forty Under 40 section, a 38-year-old Fred Nance said he didn’t mind the burden of being called a role model for aspiring, young black lawyers. But he also said he had no intention of seeking out a media or political spotlight. “Simply my being out there accomplishes something,” Mr. Nance said back then. “I’m really not looking to play a larger role.” But play a larger role he has — far larger than likely he ever could have imagined. Mr. Nance not only would rise to head the Cleveland office of one of the nation’s largest law firms, but he also would become the “go-to” guy when the city was in need of a civic leader to defend its interests. Whether it was serving as then-Mayor Mike White’s right-hand man in securing a replacement franchise for the departed Cleveland Browns or wrestling with the federal government to retain the Cleveland office of the Defense Finance and Accounting Service, Mr. Nance has been in the thick of the battle. He has been “out there,” all right — and then some.
Sandra Pianalto Class of 1993 Then: Chief operating officer, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland Now: President and CEO, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland “In a world that only a few years ago was dominated by middle-aged