Keynote Speaker
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Lee Wellington, Executive Director, Urban Manufacturing Alliance
Lee has dedicated her career to community economic development. She is the Executive Director of the Urban Manufacturing Alliance (UMA), a national non-profit that works to build robust, environmentally sustainable, and inclusive manufacturing sectors in more than 200 cities across the United States. Through a mix of collaborative research, conferences, and peer learning opportunities, UMA’s unique approach has become nationally recognized as a model for knowledge transfer across public agencies and community-based organizations. In 2018, Lee led the UMA team in a six-city study on small-scale manufacturing involving multiple Federal Reserve Banks, research universities, and hundreds of local manufacturing practitioners. Lee has been invited to present at events such as MIT's iEcosystem Symposium, The White House's National Week of Making, Etsy's Maker Cities Summit, and the National League of Cities' City Summit. She has a J.D. from Brooklyn Law School, an M.S. in City and Regional Planning from Pratt Institute, and a B.S. in Economics from the Stern School of Business at New York University.
IDEALAB reMaking Industry Presenters
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Dan Carmody, President, Eastern Market Corporation
Armed with wit and an appetite for hard work, blessed by good luck, and fueled by passion for better places, Dan Carmody has led local governments, small businesses, and non-profits during a career focused on reviving rust-belt cities. Sharpened by forty years of implementing ideas, he is guided by the E*I*E*I*O principles: Successful programs need to be entrepreneurial, inclusive, empirical, incremental, and organic. For the last ten years, Carmody has had the pleasure and privilege of serving as President of Eastern Market Corporation, the non-profit that manages and promotes one of Detroit’s most venerable institutions. Under his leadership, EMC works with many partners to make Detroit healthier, wealthier, and happier by increasing the consumption of healthy food, by creating and expanding ventures and employment throughout the regional food sector, and by fully utilizing the market’s conviviality — it’s role of bringing people together — to celebrate good food and each other. Carmody, his wife Vivian, and their two corgis live in the Lafayette Park neighborhood on the near Eastside where he enjoys a variety of couch-related leisure activities and walking to work.
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Alexander R. Bandar, Ph.D., Founder & Chief Mischief Maker, Idea Foundry
Dr. Alexander Bandar is an engineer by training, and an entrepreneur by accident. While working in the field of manufacturing software, with clients from GE to Apple to Toyota, he founded the Columbus Idea Foundry — one of the world’s largest community workshops, or "makerspaces" which he began as an experiment and is now his full-time career. Having purchased and renovated a 65,000 square foot factory in Columbus, Ohio, the Idea Foundry houses tools from blacksmithing to 3D printing, teaches classes on design and fabrication, and sells memberships to anyone who wishes to use the workshop as if it were their own. With 700+ members and growing rapidly (of whom approximately one half are entrepreneurs), the Columbus Idea Foundry is one of the most active makerspaces on the planet, and is quickly finding a place in the creative, educational, technological, and business ecosystems of Central Ohio and beyond. From Los Angeles to Dubai, Dr. Bandar speaks and consults regularly about this exciting new culture of "innovation neighborhoods," including with the Cincinnati-based CoMADE project, to which he is currently devoting his passion and experience.
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Adam Kenney, Director of Monmade and the Craft Business Accelerator, Bridgeway Capital
Adam Kenney is the Director of Monmade and the Craft Business Accelerator at Bridgeway Capital. He possesses the diverse skills needed to connect the demand and supply sides of the maker economy. As a skilled glassmaker with 20 years of experience, he connects strongly with Monmade producers. After earning a Master of Arts Management (MAM) degree from Carnegie Mellon University, Adam served in leadership positions for regional arts and cultural institutions. Before starting the Craft Business Accelerator, he served as Bridgeway’s Director of Communications where he shaped and shared the CDFI’s stories of opportunity and renewal. His role anchors Monmade and the Craft Business Accelerator’s activities to Bridgeway’s 28-year history of economic impact and community development.
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Rich Kiley, President, CoMade
If there was ever a portrait of a serial entrepreneur, it would look like Rich Kiley. Rich spent more than 30 years at Procter & Gamble where he led brand management, corporate new ventures, information technology, human resources, and finance organizations for the global consumer products company both in the U.S. and in Europe. He was responsible for co-founding P&G's interactive marketing team, reflect.com, and establishing the company's Venture Capital Fund. After leaving P&G, his focus on driving the region's economic growth stepped into an even higher gear. He co-founded a series of major ventures including the establishment of CincyTech USA, the region's first growth initiative, and Ohio's $2.5-billion Third Frontier program. That led to his involvement in the $250-million Ohio Venture Capital Program and the formation of Assurex Health, a major pharma-genetics medical company based in Mason, Ohio. He now leads CoMADE — a unique, groundbreaking collaborative manufacturing initiative designed to drive economic, job, and community growth in Greater Cincinnati. Rich is a member of the Cincinnati Arts Association Board of Directors and also serves as President of First Batch, one of the country's few accelerators dedicated to developing new physical products.
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Peggy Zink, President, Cincinnati Works
Peggy Zink brings over 20 years of consulting experience with Andersen Consulting, Fidelity Investments, and T-Point Consulting to her current role as President of Cincinnati Works since 2009. Cincinnati Works is a nonprofit organization that brings hope and encouragement to people living in poverty while assisting them in advancing to self-sufficiency through employment. The organization offers a comprehensive approach to eliminating poverty in the Greater Cincinnati Tri-State area through a network of job services and employer partnerships. She has been intimately involved in the Greater Cincinnati community since 1993 when she helped lead the strategic planning efforts of the United Way of Greater Cincinnati. Peggy currently sits on the board of several community organizations that focus on economic empowerment, education, and poverty alleviation. These include: The Athenaeum of Ohio, Greater Cincinnati Energy Alliance, Human Services Chamber, Partners for a Competitive Workforce, and Flywheel. Past board service has included CSR Academy, Employers Resource Association, Leadership Council of Human Service Executives, and Saint Ursula Academy. She is a graduate of The Athenaeum of Ohio where she received her master’s degree in pastoral ministry. She completed her undergraduate studies in engineering sciences at Dartmouth College. Peggy is a native Cincinnatian and lives in OTR. She and her husband John are parents of three adult children.
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Dan Meyer, CEO, Nehemiah Manufacturing Co.
Dan has over 30 years of consumer-packaged goods experience. He has held senior management positions with large, multi-national companies and co-founded two start-up entrepreneurial companies. Dan spent 16 years with Procter & Gamble, Quaker Oats, and the Drackett companies in a variety of marketing, sales, and general management positions. From 1994-2009, as co-founder of Changing Paradigms, Dan's team built an $85M CPG company, becoming a leader in premium private label products within the air care, household cleaners, drain care, laundry additives, and baby care categories. In 2009, Dan co-founded Nehemiah Manufacturing, whose mission is: Building Brands, Creating Jobs, and Changing Lives through employment and whole life coaching in the inner-city of Cincinnati. With the support of P&G, Nehemiah licensed the Pampers Kandoo business in September 2009 which was the foundation for the start of the Nehemiah Company. In April, 2015, Dan and his business partner, formally launched the Beacon of Hope Business Alliance, engaging leaders from business, government, churches and related social services to team together to provide critically needed jobs for Returning Citizens. Dan graduated from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton Business School in 1978, resides in Cincinnati with his wife and is the proud father of three girls and a granddaughter.
IDEALAB reMaking Industry is presented by The Carol Ann and Ralph V. Haile, Jr./U.S. Bank Foundation, People’s Liberty, Issue Media Group and Soapbox Media.
Tickets for IDEALAB reMaking Industry on sale now.