YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — So how did Alexa Sweeney Blackann become interim CEO of the region’s last economic progress entity?
Thank you to the former president of Youngstown State University.
“I nominated him through Jim Tressel,” he says. He advised me to have a little more time. “
Blackann, president of Sweeney Chevrolet Buick GMC before its sale to No. 1 Cochran in December 2022, was one of the network leaders who participated in the discussions over several months that culminated in a 2023 St. Patrick’s Day caucus with Gov. Mike DeWine.
At that meeting, the organization proposed the creation of a new JobsOhio district that would encompass Ashtabula, Columbiana, Mahoning, and Trumbull counties. The organization, which had been laying the floor for the assembly for about five months, opted to appoint Blackann “to check that this task gets off the ground,” he said.
“At Sweeney, we’ve built a lot of relationships on the network,” Blackann said May 6 in an interview at the Lake to River transition offices in an area leased to the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber. “It was an opportunity to continue that engagement with the network and build on relationships in new ways. “
The creation of Lake to River Economic Development, the seventh and final region of JobsOhio, was announced via DeWine on April 24 in Niles. Its 4 member counties were once affiliated with the Team NEO region, which at the time had 18 counties.
Blackann credits the network her family business has gained over the decades as one of the points that motivated her to sign up for the initiative.
“I don’t think you can run a business for a hundred years and four generations without being committed to the good fortune of the community,” he says.
Grantees in Sweeney’s circle of relatives had longstanding partnerships with organizations such as the United Way, Smarts Community Art School, and the YSU Foundation. “What if we could direct this effort a little bit toward economic development?Can we lift more ships?” thought.
Blackann, who does get a salary as interim CEO, now leads a seven-person organization that includes several former Regional Chamber employees, as well as Sarah Boyarko, vice president of economic development, and Mike McGiffin, vice president of engagement and investor relations.
“Alexa has answered a very important call to lead this effort altruistically, from research to launch,” McGiffin said. “I don’t know if anyone else could have done what she did. Alexa has brought together 4 counties to make this happen.
Blackann deflects praise. It’s a team effort,” he says.
Boyarko has held various positions in the Regional Chamber during his 18 years there, totaling 14 in economic development, 11 of which were as head of this department. She most recently served as the Chamber’s Chief Operating Officer.
“There is an opportunity to get a promotion in the House in the realm of operations. So I got interested and tried to enjoy it,” he says. But the Lake to River opportunity “made me realize that my real hobby is economics. “development. ”
According to McGiffin, who served as founding director of the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber before joining Lake to River, there is a “sense of need” for Boyarko.
“It’s vital that this region is a quick success, is it rarely?We need to show that it’s a smart move,” he says. Sarah is the leading authority on economic progress in this community, and it made perfect sense for her to lead this effort across all 4 boroughs. “
These counties have “a long history of collaboration,” Boyarko says. “This will make this partnership much more cohesive, sending the same message with the same voice. “
Examples of partnerships between 4 counties are the recent joint request for the Appalachian Community Grant Program budget and a collaboration between the Western Reserve Port Authority and the Columbiana County Port Authority on the progression of an assisted living facility last year.
“This network has come together over the last five years in a way that I have never noticed in my 10 years of managing on behalf of this network,” McGiffin said.
Boyarko agrees.
“There is a concerted effort to support the business community in the long term,” he says.
“Our strategic location with our unparalleled infrastructure and all of our assets make us an ideal destination for businesses to thrive, especially when contemplating the lake-river corridor,” said Penny Traina, executive director of the Columbiana County Port Authority.
Traina cites the region’s major transportation routes and its professional workforce.
Traina says this region “offers everything businesses want to succeed. “
All four counties in Appalachia have largely the same needs, but necessarily the same demographics, he says.
“What’s vital is that when we bring together each of our strong departments of economic progress, we’ll start to see more of what we have in common. That way, we’ll already be partnered as we move forward,” says Traina. .
Greg Myers, director of the Growth Partnership for Ashtabula County, agrees.
Spouse counties have been running “for a long time collaborative projects around a specific business attraction, leveraging our port assets, with our Columbiana County spouses, and leveraging the connectivity of our rail infrastructure with our spouses in Trumbull and Mahoning,” Myers says.
“This is just an extension of the opportunities we’ve noticed for a long time when looking for paints in combination with what we see as highly competitive assets in the market for some specific industries that have good compatibility in those four countries,” he continued. “They are not the most productive for the ancient region of which we are a part, simply because of their strong commercial character. “
Blackann praised the team that came together for Lake to River as “thoughtful” and “committed to this work,” as well as people who were “really committed to improving the valley. “
This team also includes Matt Falter, as Director of Talent Engagement; David Wilaj, Director of Project Management; Jason Neal, director of site strategy; and Michelle Phillips, director of research.
“These aren’t other people who haven’t enjoyed and haven’t been involved in a lot of successes within the ecosystem of economic growth,” Boyarko notes. The team already manages a portfolio of $1. 7 billion in pending investments in stages, and anticipates that some of those projects will be completed in the near future.
Lake to River’s board of directors is “committed to locating a suitable CEO who can enjoy economic progress at some point,” but there is no set timeline for that search, Blackann says.
“I’m excited to be where I am now, to be in this role, to do this task, and to receive information from all those wonderful people who are experts in this field,” she says. Anyone interested in the position “come out of nowhere” to apply “because it’s the most productive thing for the community. ”
Blackann, Boyarko and McGiffin declined to say how much cash Lake to River will want to operate, but McGiffin acknowledges that the Regional Chamber Foundation has made a “significant upfront investment. “JobsOhio’s monetary commitment represents the largest investment in the local economic progression formula. He says he’s noticed it in his career.
Other monetary contributions come from $400,000 over a two-year period from the Mahoning and Trumbull County Board of County Commissioners. Contributions come from $200,000 from the Cafaro Foundation and $100,000 from the Eastgate Regional Council of Governments, which drew on the $2. 5 million provided through General Motors. following the closure of the Lordstown plant.
“As an economic progress partner, we recognize the abundance of business opportunities and attractions that exist and look ahead to what’s to come as we grow together as a region,” Jim Kinnick, Eastgate’s chief executive, said at a May 6 meeting. Review the presentation.
As a new JobsOhio region, Lake to River has access to training and connections that in the past weren’t available to member counties, he says.
JobsOhio created its regional subsidiaries to emphasize the need for buy-in from local businesses, governments and other partners, McGiffin says. This means only offering monetary support, but also thinking, making encouraging decisions, and helping to open doors.
“Economic progress is a team sport,” he says, echoing a sentiment expressed through Bill Koehler, executive director of Team NEO.
“There will have to be successes as normal, and we are all firmly convinced that there will be. The explanation for why this is going down is due to the successes of the recent past,” McGiffin says.
Measures to gauge Lake to River’s good fortune will come with task creation, capital investment, annual payroll, and applications for completed studies, according to Boyarko. The organization’s progress will be shared in quarterly newsletters and the annual report.
“This is for everyone who lives in the region. It’s smart to worry about that,” he says. That’s where our hobby comes from. We live here and we need the network to succeed.
The purpose is to create an economy that gets better every year. McGiffin says the Lake to River team is running a marathon, not a sprint. Partners who have already invested in the organization financially or with their time, energy, or intelligence. Have realistic expectations.
“They know it’s a long-term game. I don’t think anyone who invests in economic progress will be here in just one year,” he says. “In 10 or 15 years we will see a completely different picture. “»
Pictured above: Sarah Boyarko, Alexa Sweeney Blackann, and Michael McGiffin lead the Lake to River team.
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