51. Elaine Roberts
president and CEO, Port Columbus International Airport (60)
Roberts is flying high after a five-year agreement was reached that offers an unprecedented sharing of 75 percent of net airport revenues with no cap to airlines that operate out of Port Columbus. She cited her team’s discipline in managing costs and increased passenger activity for the ability to share revenue and expand services.
52. Bob Weiler Sr.
chairman, The Robert Weiler Co. (52)
Weiler serves on the board for the Ohio Capital Corp. for Housing, which seeks to provide affordable housing in Ohio. He also continues to offer perspective as the Leader-In-Residence at Franklin University’s Leadership Center.
53. Rich Langdale
founder and managing partner, NCT Ventures; interim CEO, DOmedia LLC (53)
Langdale is a serial entrepreneur who has founded or co-founded more than a dozen companies. DOmedia is his latest business venture, a media planning and buying platform that covers alternative, traditional and digital out-of-home media. Langdale didn’t create this company, but he was named interim CEO in July to assist in raising capital for the business’s growth.
54. Jordan A. Miller Jr.
president and CEO, Fifth Third Bank, Central Ohio (54)
Miller lent his services to another Central Ohio organization when he was named to the James Cancer Hospital Board that oversees the Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute. He is on numerous other civic boards, including the Columbus Partnership, United Way of Central Ohio and the Ohio Foundation of Independent Colleges.
55. Jane Grote Abell
chair, Donatos Pizzeria LLC (55)
Abell continues to provide strategic counsel for the business in her new role. The company announced in July it had sold the majority share of its Cincinnati and Indianapolis markets to Titan Restaurant Group LLC. The result will be a transition from company-owned restaurants to franchise-owned units, plus the addition of 10 new restaurants in those markets.
56. Craig Marshall
managing partner, Ernst & Young LLP, Columbus office (56)
Marshall serves as secretary/treasurer for the Ohio Cultural Facilities Commission. This board oversees capital improvement funds for planning, construction, renovation and expansion projects at Ohio’s theaters, museums, historical sites and publicly owned professional sports venues.
57. Michael Petrecca
managing partner, Pricewaterhouse-Coopers, Columbus office (57)
Petrecca continues to serve on the boards of the Ohio Society of CPAs, the Greater Columbus Convention & Visitors Bureau, also known as Experience Columbus, and TechColumbus.
58. David Meuse
principal, Stonehenge Financial Holdings, Stonehenge Partners Inc. (58)
Meuse is responsible for providing counsel as it relates to matters of investment origination, portfolio asset management and disposition of Stonehenge investments. He continues to serve on several boards, including those at State Auto Financial Corp. and Kenyon College.
59. Robert M. Eversole
principal, Stonehenge Partners Inc. (59)
Eversole serves as a board member of Advanced Drainage Systems, as well as Nationwide Children’s Hospital Foundation, the Greater Columbus Chamber of Commerce, the Dean’s Advisory Council for The Ohio State University Fisher College of Business and the Catholic Foundation.
60. Mary Taylor
lieutenant governor, Ohio (new)
Taylor became the first CPA to serve as Ohio’s state auditor. Now, along with Gov. John Kasich, she is part of a team that is faced with great pressure to turn around Ohio’s economy and create new jobs. She was the only Republican elected to a statewide, nonjudicial office in 2006 when she took over as auditor. She clearly knows a lot about which cities and school districts have their act together fiscally after auditing them over the past four years. Now we’ll see what she can do to help get the whole state turned around.
61. Michelle Abreu
co-founder, chair and president, Oxford Consulting Group Inc. (61)
Abreu continues to help Oxford Consulting Group grow and expand its presence in Columbus. She is also a board member of Amethyst Inc., a nonprofit organization that provides long-term addiction and mental health treatment, integrated with affordable housing, to women and families.
62. Tami Longaberger
chair and CEO, The Longaberger Co. (62)
The basket-maker has expanded its online sales options but still relies heavily on its independent home consultants, who number in tens of thousands across the United States. The company is also on Facebook and continues to hold events across the country for basket enthusiasts.
63. Bill Ingram
CEO, White Castle Systems Inc. (64)
More than 1,350 entries were submitted in 2010 as candidates for induction into the restaurant chain’s Cravers Hall of Fame, the most ever since the program began in 2001. That long list was whittled down to 13 inductees in November. Clearly there’s still plenty of love for these tasty little sliders.
64. Cheryl Krueger
founder and CEO, KRUEGER+CO. Consulting Inc. (65)
Krueger received accolades from Gov. Kasich during his gubernatorial campaign as both leaders support significant changes to the Ohio Department of Development as a means to stimulate the economy in Ohio.
65. J. Richard Emens
partner, Emens & Wolper Law Firm; chairman and executive director, Conway Family Business Center (66)
Emens has been busy working with his team at Conway Family Business Center to put together programs that help family businesses succeed. More than 115 such businesses have been honored by the not-for-profit organization over the past 11 years.
66. Brian Ellis
president and COO, Nationwide Realty Investors Ltd. (67)
Ellis has been hard at work moving forward on Grandview Yard, a project that is expected to eventually contain 1.5 to 2 million square feet of commercial and retail space and create 5,000 new jobs for the region. Ellis says one of the keys to the success of the project will be the ability of the cities of Columbus and Grandview Heights to work together.
67. Denny Griffith
president, Columbus College of Art & Design (68)
The college opened its 132nd school year with 1,385 students, an 8 percent increase over what had been projected. Griffith is also serving on Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman’s 2012 Commission, focusing on the image and marketing aspects of the group’s efforts.
68. Joe A. Alutto
executive vice president and provost, The Ohio State University (69)
Alutto spoke early in the year about the consolidation of the arts and science colleges and the move from quarters to semesters in 2012 and the opportunity that will exist to reinvent the educational experience at OSU. He also talked about the One Ohio State Framework, an effort to integrate fiscal, program and physical planning at the school.
69. Ted Ford
president and CEO, TechColumbus (70)
Ford expressed hope for continued growth for the 315 Research & Technology Corridor, a 10,000-acre span of property that continues to evolve as a research park. As a technology incubator in Central Ohio, the organization has invested more than $11 million in technology startups since 2005.
70. Sandra W. Harbrecht
president and CEO, Paul Werth Associates (73)
Harbrecht was one of our inductees into the Central Ohio Business Hall of Fame in 2010. She continues to work hard as the chair of Experience Columbus. Her public relations and marketing company, Paul Werth Associates, gained some valuable social media expertise when it purchased Huber & Co. in March.
71. David Harrison
president, Columbus State Community College (new)
Harrison took over as president in July, then welcomed a record enrollment of 30,955 students when autumn classes convened in September. That’s up 25.8 percent over autumn enrollment for 2008. The college board also approved a $15.2 million project to renovate and add more than 17,000 square feet to the campus’s Union Hall.
72. Robert Schottenstein
chairman, president and CEO, M/I Homes Inc. (71)
The company lost $15.2 million through the first three quarters of 2010, which was better than the $69.1 million that was lost for the same period in 2009. Schottenstein said the builder will proceed cautiously and continue to hope that employment and housing begin to stabilize.
73. Chris Taylor
CEO, Mission Essential Personnel LLC (94)
Revenue at this professional services firm has grown fast, going from $43 million in 2007 to $375 million in 2009. Business remained strong into 2010 as the company inked a $475 million contract to assist U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan with data collection and analysis. The company also headlined the 2010 International Peace Operations Association Annual Summit in Washington, D.C.
74. Michael Glimcher
chairman and CEO, Glimcher Realty Trust (72)
While overall revenue and earnings continued to struggle in 2010, average store sales and occupancy in the company’s mall properties provided some hope by inching forward in the third quarter. Glimcher announced plans in late August to buy Hawaii’s second-largest shopping mall through a joint venture.
75. Frank Kass
chairman, Continental Real Estate Cos. (76)
Kass spoke out in August about the lack of adequate parking in downtown Columbus and the impediment it creates for growth in the city. He suggested public/private partnerships could be the answer to erasing the reluctance of some businesses to relocate downtown.
