David Abbott
Executive Director, The George Gund Foundation

You can’t measure David Abbott’s influence simply by looking at the power of The George Gund Foundation, where he is executive director. Sure, its $20 million in annual grants give Abbott the clout to affect the future of the local biotechnology industry and the Ingenuity Festival alike. But Abbott also possesses power that has moved across town with him from his tenure as Cuyahoga County administrator to his time as head of University Circle Inc.

“If he calls a meeting of regional leaders, people come because they respect him so much,” says Rob Briggs, executive director of Akron’s GAR Foundation. “I think David, in any capacity, would still have clout in the region.”

Admirers say Abbott balances an unusual honesty and candor with a knack for collaborating and sharing credit for success. The Fund For Our Economic Future, which he’s chaired since 2008, is his biggest team project: It pools funding from dozens of foundations to improve Northeast Ohio’s economy through business growth, talent development, inclusion and government collaborations. The largest funder of JumpStart, Bioenterprise, Nortech and the Minority Business Accelerator, the Fund For Our Economic Future has branched out recently into a buzz-building contest to encourage efficiency in local government.

Then there was the 2008 Commission on Cuyahoga County Government Reform and its report. Abbott chaired it. The state legislature tabled it. But its critique of the county’s inefficiency and lack of transparency helped make the case for the new Issue 6 charter.

Although Abbott didn’t get publicly involved in Issue 6, “certainly he would’ve been behind the scenes,” says a supporter. “He’s incredibly wired in ways all of us don’t even know.”

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