Building Ideas

Building Ideas

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Building Ideas episodes

  • Episode 88_Chad Munitz_Season Four Finale

    Chad Munitz joined FC Cincinnati in May 2022 as its Chief Development Officer where he manages the club's Real Estate growth ambitions including the creation of a large-scale mixed-use district adjacent to TQL Stadium.   Chad added oversight of the club's business development arm, Aligned Ventures, to his remit in January 2024, which includes all non-MLS soccer revenue initiatives.

     

    Prior to FC Cincinnati, Chad held leadership roles in Real Estate and Economic Development with Towne Properties, the Cincinnati Center City Development Corporation (3CDC), the City of Cincinnati and the Ohio Department of Development (ODOD).   He has directed over $800 million in development and led transformative projects like Fountain Square and Washington Park, playing a key role in the revitalization of Cincinnati's downtown urban core.

     

    Chad graduated from The Ohio State University with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, Information Systems.   He is a native of New Philadelphia, Ohio and resides in the City of Cincinnati neighborhood of Northside with his wife and daughter.

    42 min
  • Episode 87_Tom Demeropolis

    Tom Demeropolis serves as Editor-In-Chief of the Cincinnati Business Courier, the premier business media digital and print publication in Greater Cincinnati.    He leads the team in both the print and online editions. He is a University of Cincinnati graduate and has a master’s in journalism from Ball State University. Prior to joining the Courier in 2010, he was a reporter with the Dayton Business Journal, a sister outlet.   He was selected to be a part of Leadership Cincinnati Class 47.

     

    He is a three-time American City Business Journals Eagle award winner.     A proud native of the Queen City, he lives in Cincinnati's Western Hills with his wife Lauren, and children.

    41 min
  • Episode 86_Luke Blocher

    Luke Blocher is General Counsel and Chief Strategy Officer for the Cincinnati Development Fund.  The CDF  is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit lending institution that fills a gap not covered by traditional lenders. They provide funding for real estate development in under-served markets in the Greater Cincinnati area. They also offer facilities and equipment funding for nonprofit organizations in the Greater Cincinnati region.

     

    At CDF Luke is responsible for legal and strategy functions, including management of the affordable housing lending and New Markets Tax Credit programs. He oversees compliance, data collection and reporting required by all CDF funders. He joined CDF in 2022.  His previous experience includes working in the Attorney General's office of the State of Ohio, Senior Counsel at Taft Stettinius & Hollister and Deputy City Solicitor, City of Cincinnati.   

     

    A Cincinnati native, he is an alumnus of St Xavier High School, Amherst College and Columbia Law School in New York City.    He resides in Cincinnati's Clifton neighborhood with his wife and family.

    1 hr 17 min
  • Episode 85_LaNae Barnes & Scott Thompson

    LaNae Barnes is the Local Market Executive for Bank of America in Cincinnati and works in partnership with the market President leadership team to help connect businesses, families and individuals to the banking and investment teams that will help improve their financial lives. She deploys Bank of America’s resources in the market to address social and economic concerns and build strong communities. More specifically, LaNae is responsible for the development and execution of the market plan, designed to drive revenue growth, employee engagement and corporate reputation. In addition, she oversees community partnerships, sponsorships and philanthropy in Cincinnati. LaNae is a native of Dallas, and an accomplished full scholarship track & field athlete at Syracuse University, where she was training for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.   She and her husband live in Cincinnati with their twin daughters.  

     

    Scott Thompson is the founder of RESLV. He founded the agency in 2016 with a vision for elevating his clients' businesses by producing high-quality content that highlights their unique characteristics.  He has grown the company from its humble roots to an Emmy award-winning agency whose reach extends around the world.     Scott leads his team with a foundational commitment to transparency, creativity, and respect, valuing each team member's expertise and insights as they provide innovative content to their clients.    Scott currently serves as a Chair of the Evanston Business Association in Cincinnati and was recently elected to the NATAS Ohio Valley Board of Governors, the organization that oversees the Emmy awards.  Storyteling is his passion, and he and his team are commited to showcasing the very best of Cincinnati.  

    1 hr 3 min
  • Episode 84_Keizayla Fambro

    A strong advocate for people, Keizayla Fambro is a seasoned political strategist and community leader with a passion for social justice, policy, and community engagement.   Keizayla, is the Chief of Staff in the office of Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval.  She strategically supports and manages the Mayor's administration, while also serving as the Mayor's top advisor.   Prior to this role, Keizayla served as the Senior Political Advisor for the Ohio Organizing Collaborative, running one of the country's largest voter registration efforts while strategizing and managing campaigns.  She also was the Political Director for Mayor Aftab's mayoral campaign.  Keizayla resides in Mt. Airy, with her daughter Kylie and dog Bentley!

    38 min
  • Episode 83_Damian Hoskins

    Damian Hoskins is the Executive Director of Elementz, the premier Hip Hop Cultural Art Center in, Cincinnati. Elementz is committed to fostering talent, igniting potential and inspiring possibilities, particularly for underrepresented youth in the Greater Cincinnati region. Previously, Damian was the Vice President of Arts Impact at ArtsWave, the leading fundraiser and promoter of the arts in Cincinnati. Damian is also a 20 year teaching veteran and teaches a course on Hip Hop Studies at the College Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati. Damian is also an oil painter, graphic designer and furniture maker. As an educator and artist, Damian firmly believes that his purpose in life is to inform and inspire the next generation of creative problem solvers. 

    Damian holds a bachelor’s degree in English education from Central State University and a master’s degree from the Art Academy of Cincinnati. 

    1 hr 9 min
  • Episode 82_Julie Calvert
    As President and CEO of Visit Cincy (formerly known as the Cincinnati USA Convention & Visitors Bureau), Julie Calvert leads the region’s destination marketing and management organization. Her strategic vision and collaborative approach help maximize the size and impact of Cincinnati’s visitor economy and expand the region’s travel, tourism, and convention industries.
    Prior to her appointment as CEO, Calvert served as Executive Director of Source Cincinnati (Cincinnati Experience), where she led the charge to connect the region with national media and elevate the “Cincinnati Story” into the global spotlight. In that role, she created a coalition of like-minded, visionary funders. She built and engaged a board of directors and tapped our best regional resources and outside experts to establish Source as the region’s only organization focused solely on global reputation management.
    Calvert has spent her career developing and executing strategies that drive awareness, build reputation, mobilize resources, and spark economic vitality in the region. She started as a media reporter and editor, worked as a senior advisor at one of Cincinnati’s top communications firms and served as Vice President of Communications and Strategic Development for the CVB from 2001-2016. While there, she was the driving force behind the CVB’s national marketing, communications and reputation-building strategies and was instrumental in the Bureau’s record-setting results in attracting and hosting some of the world’s most high-profile conventions.
    With a profound appreciation of our region’s rich diversity, Calvert has a track record of finding ways to celebrate the varied voices, backgrounds and viewpoints that make up our Cincinnati tapestry. She helped build the CVB’s Supplier Diversity Program and multicultural marketing channel. And she made diversity a key part of Source Cincinnati’s strategic vision, from the people it engages to the stories it tells about the region. In 2019, she was honored with the APEX award from Black Meetings & Tourism.
    In 2015, Calvert spearheaded civic communications efforts for the 2015 Major League Baseball All-Star Game hosted in Cincinnati, raising the city’s national profile during one of the signature events in all professional sports. In 2019, Calvert was included in the Cincinnati 300, a compilation of the city’s top 300 business leaders, along with a spot in the Power 100, a list of the 100 most influential business, political and community leaders in the Cincinnati region.
    In 2020, amidst the Coronavirus pandemic, Calvert was tapped to chair the Ohio Governor’s Statewide Task Force on Travel and Tourism to craft safe reopening strategies and protocols for the industry.
    She serves on board of Destinations International, the Hamilton County Commission on Women and Girls, the Board of the Cincinnati Music Festival, a former Cabinet Member for the ArtsWave Annual Community Campaign and has volunteered in leadership roles with several other regional non-profit organizations.
    Calvert earned a bachelor’s degree from Miami University and resides in Anderson Township with her husband Chris and two sons.
    33 min
  • Episode 81_Kate Schroder

    Kate Schroder joined Interact for Health as its fourth President and CEO in January 2022. In this role, she works with Interact for Health’s staff and board to provide leadership, direction, and vision to the organization and to develop strategies to address some of the most pressing health needs in Greater Cincinnati. A native of Cincinnati, Kate has experience leading health initiatives locally and internationally. Prior to joining Interact for Health, she oversaw a regional collaborative effort to increase COVID-19 vaccination throughout 14 counties in Greater Cincinnati and to address disparities in vaccination rates while working at The Health Collaborative.

    In 2020, Kate was a candidate for Congress in Ohio’s 1st District, running on a platform to expand access to affordable health care and economic mobility. For 12 years before that, she held various leadership roles with the Clinton Health Access Initiative, a 1,400-person organization spanning 35 countries. As a Vice President leading child health programs, she helped reduce drug prices by 40% and increased the number of children receiving correct treatment by 50 million in four focus countries: India, Kenya, Nigeria, and Uganda. She led teams with 75 staff members and budgets of more than $80 million.

    Kate holds a Bachelor of Arts in political science from Indiana University and a Master of Business Administration from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Results from her work to reduce childhood mortality and to strengthen health systems in low-resource settings have been published in several academic journals, including the British Medical Journal and The Lancet.

    In 2011, Kate was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, an experience that she says helps fuel her passion for improving health care—knowing firsthand what it feels like when one’s survival is dependent on access to quality care. She remains active in patient advocacy and helping to support research as a member of the Executive Leadership Committee of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

    Kate and her husband, John Juech, live in Cincinnati with their two children. She is active in community and civic affairs and served on the Cincinnati Board of Health from 2016 to 2022. Outside of the office, she coaches youth soccer and concentrates her service around her passions for health, children, education, and building stronger communities. She serves on the boards for the Cincinnati State Foundation and OneNKY Alliance and the advisory board for the NKU Institute for Health Innovation.

    43 min
  • Episode 80_Rob Zimmerman

    Rob Zimmerman is in his third year as Head of School at his alma mater, Cincinnati Country Day School. He was born in Dallas, lived in Atlanta as a young child, and grew up in Cincinnati since the 3rd grade (residing in Indian Hill, literally across the street from CCDS, where his parents still live and host Sunday family dinners). He is a proud 1998 graduate of Country Day, attended Vanderbilt University for his undergraduate degree (BA, English), and continued his studies at the University of Cincinnati College of Law (JD).

    Rob practiced as a commercial litigator at Dinsmore & Shohl LLP for 16 years, handling a wide range of business disputes, including breach of contract, corporate governance, securities, intellectual property, and real estate matters. He served on the board of trustees at CCDS for a number of years and stepped in as Interim Head of School in 2021. Following a national search process, he was appointed as Head of School. To quote Rob, "I feel outrageously lucky to be able to do what I do every day."

    42 min
  • Episode 79_Tianay Amat

    Tianay Amat is the President & CEO of Cincinnati Works. She believes in the resiliency of the human spirit and is passionate about eliminating poverty through education and employment.

    Ms. Amat also has over two decades in public education.  She has served as an Interim Superintendent, Deputy Superintendent, Principal and Teacher in both urban and suburban school districts.
     
    Ms. Amat was recognized as the Administrator of the year by the Cincinnatus Association, Community Builder of the Year by the Hyde Park Neighborhood Council, and received Teacher of the Year by New York City Board of Education.

    Ms. Amat holds a Master of Science in Education from the State University of New York at Cortland and a Master of Science in Educational Leadership from the University of Cincinnati.

    39 min

About Building Ideas

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Building Ideas is a podcast joined by passionate designers, leaders, and innovators who believe design and relationships have the power to make the world a better place. Join us as we discuss trending topics, innovative techniques and deep-seated traditions in the design, non-profit, and business worlds that leave a lasting impact on our lives and our communities. Subscribe to hear the latest monthly updates and special guest appearances on Wednesdays.