Lee Fisher accepted his new position with CEOs for Cities on two conditions. First, the nonprofit national network that helps cities identify strategies for economic growth had to open a Cleveland office. Secondly, he had to be allowed to split his time between his hometown and the organization’s Chicago headquarters.
“My vision of what we can do for Cleveland is primarily based on the notion that, increasingly, what’s happening on the federal and state level is hyper-partisanship and a dysfunctional government,” says Fisher, the president and CEO of CEOs for Cities, which located its Cleveland office at Cleveland State University’s Maxine Levin College of Urban Affairs. “The more I’ve worked in the area of public policy, the more I’ve become convinced that the most effective action occurs on the local level.”
Although it’s a new position for 60-year-old Fisher, the job covers familiar ground. As lieutenant governor, he served as director of the state’s Department of Development, where he was tasked with creating Ohio’s first Strategic Plan for Economic Development. For assistance, he turned to CSU’s Ned Hill, who was the university’s vice president for economic development and interim dean of the Levin College of Urban Affairs.
He also traveled the globe to bring new business to Ohio, doing his best to reverse the 500,000 jobs that left the state during the previous decade.
Fisher helped attract biotech startups such as medical imaging company ViewRay, and he was instrumental in convincing Goodyear and Bridgestone Firestone to remain in Akron and reinvest in the city.
Now, Ohio’s business ambassador has turned teacher. As head of CEOs for Cities, he’ll share strategies for attracting business with local leaders in more than 40 cities. We recently talked to Fisher about his new position and how it will affect his former
constituency.
IB: The cynic says former public officials are supposed to join the private sector and exploit their connections.
LF: I suppose I could have pursued more lucrative opportunities, either in the practice of law or the corporate world.
But I wanted to follow my heart.
IB: In your new position, what can you do for Northeast Ohio?
LF: The first thing we want to do is form city-partnership clusters in Cleveland, Akron, Canton and Youngstown. These clusters will be made up of leaders from the public, private, nonprofit and philanthropic sectors who will become members or partners of CEOs for Cities and do two things: One, lift up Northeast Ohio and celebrate the economic successes and put them on a national platform. ... The second thing we intend to do is to bring cutting-edge ideas in four areas: talent, the quality of place, innovation and economic opportunity.
IB: How do you think Northeast Ohio ranks in those areas?
LF: [We’ve] been a leader in many of the areas CEOs for Cities focuses on. The best example is in the area of innovation and entrepreneurship — JumpStart, BioEnterprise, the Fund for Our Economic Future, NorTech, OneCommunity, the Cleveland Foundation’s Evergreen Cooperatives, the business incubators in Akron and Youngstown. All are national models of innovation and entrepreneurship.
IB: What would you identify as some of our weaknesses?
LF: We’ve made great progress in other areas as well, such as talent development and attraction, creative placemaking and economic opportunity, but we need to do a better job of linking them together.
IB: What made the Levin College a good choice as a partner?
LF: The college is one of the highest-ranked urban graduate schools in the country. And [it helps] just being around smart people. Ziona Austrian, the director of economic development at Levin College, she might not be that well known around Cleveland, but nationally, she’s known as one of the great researchers of economic development. And to be able to walk down the hall and get the best ideas, that’s wonderful.