Building Ideas – Détails, épisodes et analyse

Brendon Cull

President & CEO, Cincinnati Regional Chamber

Brendon Cull leads the Cincinnati Regional Chamber—the region’s largest business organization—where he drives a bold strategy to grow our economy, population, and cultural vibrancy. Since joining the Chamber in 2015 (after a decade guiding government affairs for The Kroger Co.), Brendon has steered game‑changing initiatives: championing the Brent Spence Bridge Corridor, co‑creating the Cincinnati Futures Commission, scaling BLINK into a $127 million economic juggernaut, and launching the Minority Business Accelerator Fund I.

A Xavier University grad (Organizational Communication) and Leadership Cincinnati alum, Brendon blends 30 years of government, corporate, and nonprofit experience. He’s an in‑demand strategist and civic ambassador, serving on boards for ArtsWave, CincyTech, the Cincinnati Museum Center, the Minority Business Accelerator, Visit Cincy, and Xavier’s Williams College of Business.

Away from the office, Brendon is an avid reader, runner, cyclist, and live‑music aficionado. He and his wife Becky are raising two daughters in Cincinnati’s Clifton neighborhood—never far from a great book or the next big idea.

 

Pete Metz

Vice President, Civic & Regional Partnerships, Cincinnati Regional Chamber

Pete Metz convenes businesses, civic leaders, and community partners to accelerate initiatives that make Greater Cincinnati thrive. As vice president of Civic & Regional Partnerships, he guides the Chamber’s Center for Research & Data and more than a dozen programs tackling economic development, housing, innovation, and the built environment.

Best known as the business community’s “transportation champion,” Pete has spent nearly a decade unlocking hundreds of millions of dollars for transformative projects—the Brent Spence Bridge, Western Hills Viaduct, expanded Metro funding, and the region‑spanning CROWN trail. He helped architect and pass Hamilton County’s landmark Move Forward levy, doubling transit funding while lowering Cincinnati’s earnings tax.

Pete cut his teeth in public service as chief of staff to Cincinnati Vice Mayor David Mann and on Capitol Hill shaping federal transportation and energy policy. He now serves on the boards of SORTA, OKI Regional Council of Governments, the Corporation for Findlay Market, and Northside’s NEST CDC.

A Clifton resident, Pete enjoys exploring city neighborhoods with his wife Becca and their two young daughters—always plotting the next connection that will move Cincinnati forward.

Charley Wayman is the Director of Marketing at MSA Design, where she leads strategic marketing and business development initiatives across the firm’s architecture, interiors, and graphics disciplines. A proud graduate of the University of Cincinnati’s College of DAAP with a degree in Fashion Product Development, Charley brings a unique blend of creativity, strategy, and relationship-building to her work. She currently serves on the Board of Housing Opportunities of Northern Kentucky, is an alumna of the Queen City Game Changers, and will soon graduate from the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber’s WE Lead program.

Originally from Clarksville, Ohio, Charley now lives in Ludlow, Kentucky with her husband and their beloved dogs (and one cat). She’s a self-proclaimed book nerd (on a mission to read at least 40 books for her 40th year), bourbon enthusiast, sneaker collector, wannabe health junkie, and lifelong lover of leopard print. Before joining MSA, she worked with the Building Industry Association of Northern Kentucky, supporting advocacy for the building industry. Charley thrives on trying new things, traveling, cheering on the Bengals as a season ticket holder, and leaning into her Enneagram 7 spirit. Her top strengths—Positivity, WOO, Achiever, Learner, and Strategic—are the heart of how she shows up in life and leadership.

 

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!

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. 

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.

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.

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."

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.

Roger David is president and CEO of Gold Star Chili, Inc., an iconic Cincinnati business with two well-known brands in its portfolio of companies – Gold Star and Tom & Chee.

 

Roger leads a team of dedicated professionals working to continue to build the brand his father and uncles started more than 50 years ago. Since being named president and CEO, Roger has grown Gold Star Chili, Inc. to include Tom & Chee, the famous grilled cheese and soup restaurant chain that rocketed to stardom thanks to an appearance on ABC’s “Shark Tank.” 

 

Under his leadership, Gold Star has completed strategic updates to all areas of its business in order to drive success and growth for the next 50 years and beyond. A $30 million investment translated into a new restaurant look, menu and guest experience for its 70+ locations throughout Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky. Roger believes restaurant brands are built tableside and has advanced the companies training and development efforts. The company also made a deliberate investment into facility efficiencies in order to build environmentally-friendly restaurants, which pays off for its franchise owners who are realizing improvements in labor costs, energy usage and employee productivity. Gold Star is in the process of bringing those same strategies to the Tom & Chee brand in order to position it for success for years to come.

 

Earlier in his career, Roger served as CEO of national sports restaurant franchise Buffalo Wings & Rings; director of brand strategy at Brandimage, a brand design and consultancy serving fortune 500 clients; and vice president of marketing at Gold Star. He has served a member of the Cincinnati Parks Foundation board, President of the Music Resource Center, Vice President of the Council on Child Abuse, and ArtWorks Big Pitch mentor and judge. Roger is currently in Leadership Cincinnati Class 47. 

 

Roger holds a bachelor’s degree in marketing from the University of Cincinnati and an MBA from Xavier University. He is married to Ceci and has three children: Liza, Alex and Margo.

Karl Kadon, a lifelong resident of Cincinnati, is an alumnus of Walnut Hills High School, Miami University, and the Salmon P. Chase College of Law. Since 2006, he has served as a Criminal Chief, a federal prosecutor, stationed at the Cincinnati branch office of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Ohio.

In his role, Kadon dedicated a significant portion of his federal career to the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force, focusing on pursuing major drug dealers and drug cartels. In 2019, he was appointed as the Deputy Criminal Chief overseeing the Task Force. Shortly thereafter, he assumed the position of Chief of the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, where he took charge of all investigations and criminal cases. Over the past two decades, Kadon has either personally litigated or supervised some of the most notable federal prosecutions in the Southern District of Ohio, earning several awards and recognitions for his contributions.

Before becoming a federal prosecutor, Kadon served as the Chief Assistant Prosecuting Attorney for the Hamilton County Prosecutor’s Office. Prior to that, he held the position of Deputy City Solicitor for the City of Cincinnati, where he was responsible for managing all civil litigation and criminal prosecution matters. In 1987, he was commissioned as an officer in the United States Army Reserve, serving as a Judge Advocate ("JAG") in the Judge Advocate Generals Corps until his retirement in 2015 as a Lieutenant Colonel. His military service included mobilization for Operation DESERT STORM, deployment as Deputy Staff Judge Advocate for the Special Operations Component of U.S. Central Command during Operations ENDURING FREEDOM and IRAQI FREEDOM, with assignments in the Gulf, Afghanistan, and other regions.

Beyond his professional and military commitments, Kadon has actively participated in youth soccer and the Boy Scouts. He previously served on the Board of Directors for the Dan Beard Council of the BSA and currently holds positions on the Board of Directors of the FC Cincinnati Foundation and the Miami University Alumni Association Advisory Board.