A longtime booster of Cincinnati's tech scene is getting a leadership refresh after losing its executive director earlier this year.
On Wednesday, Main Street Ventures announced the promotion of Brianna Dzuricsko to executive lead and director of development and funding programs and Abby Ober to director of community engagement and entrepreneurial support. They take on the leadership duties of former executive director Kelly Bonnell, who left Main Street Ventures in March to become chief operations officer of Constellation Wealth Management.
The organization, the release states, is now hunting for a third hire to run operations and special events.
Board chair Tony Alexander said the new leadership structure "allows our team to continue elevating ideas while empowering the next generation of leaders here in our city."
And while Bonnell has stepped away from the firm's day-to-day activities, she was among three new board members unveiled in Wednesday's release. The other additions include: Paula Boggs Muething, vice president of legal affairs of FC Cincinnati and Cincinnati's former city manager; and Joel Stone, senior vice president and regional managing director at Fifth Third Private Bank/Fifth Third Securities.
Main Street Ventures has been a fixture in Over-the-Rhine since 1999, back when it was known as the "Digital Rhine" during the dot-com days of the early 2000s. But in the early 2010s when digital startups took center stage in the tech scene, Main Street Ventures created the Brandery accelerator to help those startups leverage Cincinnati's branding and marketing talent to create consumer-facing brands.
The running of the Brandery was taken over by the Gener8tor network out of Milwaukee in 2018 and Main Street Ventures reinvented itself again as a source of funding for early stage startups, events that supported the ecosystem and groups that boosted the tech economy.
Main Street Ventures' launch and leap grants have provided vital funding for growing startups throughout the region. Its latest batch of recipients were announced in late June.
