Title: Executive director
Company: Blue North
Hometown: North Canton, Ohio
Lives: Cold Spring, Kentucky
Education: Bachelor of science in marketing, Miami (Ohio) University
Hobbies: Coaching my son and daughter in soccer, working with entrepreneurs and founders, bourbon collection, FC Cincinnati
What’s a goal your organization has for 2024?
2024 is going to be a big year for Blue North. In January, it will be 18 months since I joined the organization and while we’ve made a lot of progress, we still have a lot of work to do.
At the very top of the list is going to be the renovation of the former Sims Furniture Building in the heart of downtown Covington. It will be the new entrepreneurial hub of Northern Kentucky and Cincinnati bringing together investors, founders and growth startups under one roof.
Describe what you do.
Blue North is the KY Innovation hub for the 11 counties of Northern Kentucky. We serve as the front door for NKY’s entrepreneurial community and as the champion for those founders that call Northern Kentucky home.
My role is about rolling up my sleeves to help entrepreneurs connect with the right resources, whether that is subject matter expert as a mentor or a potential investor. It is also about “pushing the boulder up the hill” to address the roadblocks that our entrepreneurs are facing in the community.
How did you get involved in innovation and/or entrepreneurship?
My first exposure to this space was at Miami University where I minored in entrepreneurship. After graduation, I worked at Procter & Gamble, where I ultimately had the opportunity to be a co-founder of P&G’s corporate digital team. I had my first exposure to venture capital, as we worked with companies like Facebook, Twitter and Google in the early days of Web 2.0.
It was that work that inspired me to start The Brandery in 2010 along with several good friends in Cincinnati. The Brandery was one of the first startup accelerators in the Midwest, and we launched it because we firmly believe that our community had as much talent.
