Joseph D. Roman
President and Chief Executive Officer
Greater Cleveland Partnership
Joseph Roman (Joe) is president and chief executive officer of the Greater Cleveland Partnership, one of the nation's largest metropolitan chambers of commerce.
Roman is president and CEO of Greater Cleveland Partnership, which is working to increase the overall economic vitality of Northeast Ohio. He is committed to making an impact in several areas of focus for the organization, including high-growth business creation, physical development, workforce development and education, and business retention, expansion and attraction. Roman also drives the organization's emphasis on advocacy, diversity and inclusion, member services and internationalization.
Roman previously served as executive director of Cleveland Tomorrow-an organization that recently merged with the Greater Cleveland Growth Association and the Greater Cleveland Roundtable to form the Greater Cleveland Partnership-which was comprised of chief executive officers from the largest companies in Northeast Ohio. The organization was committed to pursuing projects and initiatives that were fundamental to the long-term economic vitality of the region. Roman had been with Cleveland Tomorrow since 1985 and became executive director in 1993. During his tenure, Cleveland Tomorrow was recognized by the Harvard Business School as one of the most innovative and successful regional business organizations in the country, and was a leading player in rebuilding Cleveland's downtown through business leadership and resources.
Before joining Cleveland Tomorrow, Roman worked on Capitol Hill as both a congressional staff person and as a lobbyist for several manufacturing trade associations.
Roman has a bachelor's degree from the State University of New York and a master's degree in public administration from Harvard University.
Roman also sits on several boards including the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, Greater Cleveland Boy Scout Council, the E-Prep Academy and the Convention & Visitors Bureau.
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Steve Millard
President, Council of Smaller Enterprises
Steve Millard is president of the Council of Smaller Enterprises (COSE). In his role, Millard has responsibility for leading the small business programs, products and services of COSE.
Prior to joining GCP, Millard spent five years with Andersen Consulting's Strategic Services Practice in both Boston and Cleveland. At Andersen Consulting, he focused on strategic management and supply chain strategy projects for Fortune 500 companies. Millard also served General Electric's Medical Systems Business Group in Boston, where he was responsible for sales and service logistics for the Northeast Region.
Millard holds a degree in finance and a degree in transportation and distribution management from Syracuse University. He graduated summa cum laude and was named both University Scholar and Class Marshall for his graduating class. He is one of few graduates in the history of the university that captured both the top academic and top leadership distinctions granted by the university.
Millard serves on the boards of the American Chamber of Commerce Executives, National Association for Membership Development, the National Small Business Association, the Presidents Council Foundation and the Cleveland Partnership for Arts and Culture.
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Yvette M. Ittu
Executive Vice President of Finance and Operations
Greater Cleveland Partnership
Yvette M. Ittu is the executive vice president of finance and operations of the Greater Cleveland Partnership. In addition, she is vice president of Cleveland Development Advisors Inc. (CDA), an affiliate of GCP that is responsible for the management of real estate investment funds initiated, and in part capitalized, by certain GCP members. The initial fund, Cleveland Development Partnership, was capitalized in 1989 to serve as a source of funding for catalytic real estate development projects having a significant impact on the growth and development of the City of Cleveland. In 2000, CDA created the Cleveland Civic Vision Housing Fund, to focus primarily on investment in housing in downtown Cleveland and its adjacent neighborhoods. In 2003, CDA was successful in obtaining an allocation of tax credit equity to establish a new investment fund, the Cleveland New Markets Investment Fund. This fund is being used to further investments in neighborhood development, job retention and business expansion as well as catalytic investments along the transportation corridor of Euclid Avenue, Cleveland's main thoroughfare between Public Square and University Circle. Yvette's responsibilities as vice president of CDA include the overall management of these funds.
Prior to joining CDA, Yvette was an associate with the law firm of Calfee, Halter and Griswold LLP practicing in the areas of public law and public finance. She served as bond counsel on multiple financings for the Ohio Housing Finance Agency, the City of Cleveland, and several other Ohio local governments. In addition, Yvette served as finance director for the City of Lakewood and held several financial management positions for the City of Cleveland including the chief financial officer post for Cleveland Public Power, the city-owned power company. Yvette was called upon to serve as chairperson of Mayor Jane Campbell's finance transition committee and to act as interim finance director during the first quarter of the Campbell administration. In addition, Yvette also served on the finance transition team for Mayor Frank Jackson.
Yvette obtained her Juris Doctorate Degree from Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. In addition, she is a certified public accountant and has a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration from Cleveland State University. Yvette currently serves on several community and nonprofit Boards including NorTech, Benjamin Rose Institute, Village Capital Corporation, Shorebridge Capital, as well as audit committees for several local governments including the City of Cleveland. She is a native of Cleveland and now lives in Rocky River with her husband and two children.
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Daniel E. Berry
Senior Vice President, Organizational Advancement
Greater Cleveland Partnership
Daniel E. Berry is the Greater Cleveland Partnership's senior vice president, organizational advancement, with responsibility for strategic planning, corporate communications, board management and relations, grant making and fund raising.
Previously, as senior vice president, strategic integration for the Greater Cleveland Growth Association, (the Chamber of Commerce of Greater Cleveland,) he was responsible for successfully managing and concluding the Growth Association's merger negotiations with Cleveland Tomorrow and the Greater Cleveland Roundtable, which led to the creation of the GCP in 2004.
Berry joined the Growth Association in 1995 as vice president, workforce preparation to oversee the start-up and implementation of the Jobs and Workforce Initiative, a regional, business-led effort to ensure access to talented workers for Northeast Ohio companies and broader career opportunities for residents. In 2000, he was named vice president, growth strategies and services, with responsibility for workforce development, international trade, minority business development, business attraction and retention, and development finance. He also managed the association's engagement in creating Team NEO, a regional business retention and attraction initiative in partnership with other business organizations in northeast Ohio.
Prior to the Growth Association, he spent 13 years with The George Gund Foundation, serving as associate director from 1989-1995. He began his career with The Charles F. Kettering Foundation as an urban affairs program associate with responsibility for national grant-making aimed at stimulating urban revitalization.
Berry received a doctorate in management from the Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University, where he was a Mandel Fellow. He earned both bachelor's and master's degrees from Kent State University.
Berry's recent civic engagements include serving as a trustee of the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland Foundation and the Center for Employment Training-Cleveland. He also served on the Cuyahoga County Workforce Investment Board's Executive Committee and was a member of the City of Cleveland Workforce Investment Board. He previously chaired The Cleveland Foundation's Fenn Educational Fund, which assists cooperative education and internship programs at Greater Cleveland higher education institutions and still serves on the Fenn board. A past chair of Vocational Guidance Services, he has remained as a member of that board.
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Carol Caruso
Senior Vice President, Advocacy
Greater Cleveland Partnership
Carol Caruso was named senior vice president of advocacy for the Greater Cleveland Partnership in March 2004 when the organization was formed. Prior to that, she held the post of vice president of advocacy for the Greater Cleveland Growth Association, one of the three organizations that merged to become the GCP.
She is responsible for government advocacy at the federal, state and local levels for the GCP and its partners, including NorTech, JumpStart, and Build Up Greater Cleveland. In this capacity, she works closely with community partners to develop a regional advocacy strategy that advances job creation and economic development for Northeast Ohio.
Prior to her work with the Growth Association, Carol was vice president of government relations for Cablevision of Ohio from 1998 to 2000. She also served as the executive vice president of the Ohio Cable Telecommunications Association and director of government affairs for Nationwide Insurance Companies, both in Columbus, Ohio.
She serves on several civic and charitable boards and is a graduate of Leadership Cleveland 2004. She attended The Ohio State University, where she majored in Political Science. Carol and her family reside in Solon, Ohio.
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Deb Janik
Senior Vice President, Real Estate and Business Development
Greater Cleveland Partnership
Deb Janik joined the Greater Cleveland Partnership as Sr. Vice President, Real Estate and Business Development in October 2005. Janik's duties at GCP include management of all GCP development programs and as primary liaison for GCPs regional development efforts.
Janik provides GCP staff support for public-private partnership efforts on catalytic large scale developments throughout Cleveland and its inner ring suburbs. She serves as an officer to GCP's Community Development Advisors group, oversees the Build-up Greater Cleveland Infrastructure Network and manages GCP's Business Attraction, Retention and Expansion efforts.
Prior to joining GCP, Janik served as Vice President of Regional Development for the Cleveland Cuyahoga County Port Authority. There she was responsible for the development and implementation of a comprehensive strategy to advance multi-jurisdictional community and economic development initiatives in accordance with the Ports mission.
Janik previously served as chief of staff and chief development officer for Mayor Jane L. Campbell at the City of Cleveland. In addition to overseeing the daily operations of all City departments and 9,000 employees, she was responsible for the planning and financing of all community and economic development activities of the city. Her work in public service began with the City of Cleveland in 1988. In 1995 she was appointed to then Mayor Michael R. White's executive staff. Janik left the city in 1997 to work for the private and non-profit sector before returning in 2002 as Assistant Director of Finance prior to being named chief of staff.
Deb has dedicated her entire career to working in Cleveland and currently serves on several community boards and commissions including ParkWorks, Cleveland Neighborhood Development Coalition, the NOACA Transportation Advisory Committee and the Visiting Committee of the College of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State University.
She has more than 19 years of public, private, and not-for-profit experience. She is a 1987 graduate of Kent State University and holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Finance with a concentration in real-estate. She resides in the Ohio City neighborhood of Cleveland.
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Andrew Jackson
Executive Director, Commission on Economic Inclusion
Senior Vice President, Greater Cleveland Partnership
Andrew Jackson serves as executive director of the Commission on Economic Inclusion, the GCP's initiative to build and sustain economic growth by enhancing the participation of minority professionals and minority-owned businesses in overall efforts to create jobs and investment in Northeast Ohio. He is also a senior vice president at GCP.
Jackson previously was a consultant at Accenture, where he focused on transforming large-scale business and technology in the automotive and industrial equipment industries for clients including BP America, DaimlerChrysler, and Johnson Controls.
A graduate of John Adams High School, he earned a degree in accounting from Cleveland State University and completed the CPA examination a year later. He joined Accenture as a consultant following graduation in 1982 and was made partner in 1995.
His involvement with the life-changing INROADS internship program originated during his freshman year of college when he began a four-year internship at Key Bank. It has continued through his role as a fund raiser, mentor and inductee in the INROADS National Alumni Hall of Fame. His long-standing work with Karamu House includes serving as board chairman for nine years.
Jackson has received wide recognition for his civic and professional accomplishments by Kaleidoscope Magazine, Crain's Cleveland Business, Black Enterprise magazine, Consulting Magazine, the City of Cleveland, and others.
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Dorothy C. Baunach
President and Chief Executive Officer
NorTech
Dorothy C. Baunach is president and chief executive officer of NorTech (www.nortech.org). NorTech's technology and business leaders are the strategic drivers of the region's technology-based economic development agenda. NorTech's goal is to align and leverage the region's technology assets to build a more globally competitive economy in Northeast Ohio. NorTech promotes research, innovation, entrepreneurship and technology industry growth throughout the region for the benefit of all citizens.
Dorothy was previously deputy director of Cleveland Tomorrow where she directed the start-up of NorTech as a program of Cleveland Tomorrow. NorTech is now an affiliate organization of the Fund for Our Economic Future and the Greater Cleveland Partnership (GCP) with many collaborative relationships throughout the region.
From 1988 to 1995, Dorothy was the founding president of the Edison BioTechnology Center (EBTC) and served again as interim president in 2000 and 2001 to help reshape the organization and lay the strategic groundwork for the formation of BioEnterprise and Omeris.
Prior to starting EBTC, Dorothy was vice president of Enterprise Development, Inc. (now JumpStart), an organization affiliated with the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University, dedicated to educating, recognizing and providing incubation services to entrepreneurial companies. Since 1983, through EDI, EBTC, Cleveland Tomorrow and NorTech, Dorothy has helped the start-up and development of numerous technology-based businesses and technology-based economic development programs throughout Ohio. In 1993, she received Ernst & Young's Entrepreneur of the Year Award for her support of entrepreneurship in Northeast Ohio.
During more than two decades as a technology-based economic development professional, Dorothy has served on start-up company and nonprofit organization boards and several state and national councils, commissions and panels. She is a past president and long-time board member of the Cleveland Engineering Society, current treasurer of the Ohio Fuel Cell Coalition (OFCC) and a board member for the Center for Creativity and Innovation with the National Inventors Hall of Fame. She is also an Advisory Board member of the Ohio Innovation Fund. In addition, she is a visiting member of the boards of BioEnterprise, the Ohio Polymer Strategy Council, OFCC, OneCommunity and JumpStart, Inc. She also currently sits as an appointee of the Governor on Ohio's Industry, Technology and Enterprise Advisory Council (ITEAC) and on the Midwestern Higher Education Consortium. Dorothy received the Cleveland Engineering Society Leadership Award in June 2006 for her efforts to advance technology in the region and support the mission of The Cleveland Engineering Society.
A 1970 graduate of Wittenberg University with a bachelor's degree in biology, magna cum laude, Dorothy earned an MS in biology in 1973 from the University of Dayton and an MBA in 1983 from Case Western Reserve's Weatherhead School of Management. At Case, she was the first recipient of Weatherhead's Entrepreneur of the Year Award. Prior to earning her MBA, Dorothy taught biology, did biomedical research, and sold residential real estate.
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