SEPTEMBER 9, 2024
Swarm of nonprofit executive changes 44 CEOs in the region have announced plans to step down since 2023 By Paige Bennett
or style and generally imbibing less. So how does a 36-year-old craft brand in a market like this position itself for success in the decades to come?
Northeast Ohio’s nonprofit sector has seen a noteworthy number of CEO resignations over the last year, according to a recent report. Forty-four (and counting) nonprofit CEOs have announced plans to step down from their roles since 2023, according to Business Volunteers Unlimited (BVU), a Cleveland-based organization that provides board matching and consulting services to nonprofits. Elizabeth Voudouris, BVU’s president and CEO, said the organization began tracking resignations after noticing a surprising number of nonprofit leaders announce their departures over the last year. The moves are happening across the sector, ranging from arts and education organizations and health and human services. A few notable leadership transitions taking place in Northeast Ohio’s nonprofit space include the retirements of The Diversity Center President and CEO Peggy Zone Fisher, Beck Center for the
See BREWING on Page 16
See NONPROFIT on Page 16
Great Lakes Brewing co-CEOs Chris Brown and Steven Pauwels were tapped to succeed former CEO Mark King when he left the company earlier this year. | KEN BLAZE
OPPORTUNITY BREWING Great Lakes Brewing Co.’s new CEOs see potential for growth in Ohio — and beyond
By Jeremy Nobile
Amid shifting consumer habits and a shrinking beer market, Ohio’s oldest craft brewery faces some unique challenges that its new co-CEOs are primed to tackle.
While Great Lakes Brewing Co. helped shape the modern identity of craft beer following its founding in 1988, the storied company — which appealed to lagerheads with its classic Dortmunder Gold and made Christmas Ale a household name in
the Midwest and beyond — finds itself sandwiched between an older generation of drinkers who developed a fierce loyalty for its suds and a younger generation of consumers who are increasingly fickle, less faithful to any particular alcohol brand
How Cleveland escaped its ransomware attack Criminals asked for millions, but the city didn’t pay By Kim Palmer and Scott Suttell
Cybercriminals who staged a ransomware attack on the city of Cleveland in June asked for payment of millions of dollars. They didn’t get it. Any of it.
Kim Roy Wilson, commissioner of Cleveland’s Information Technology & Services Division, confirmed at a Crain’s Cleveland Business Power Breakfast event on Wednesday, Aug. 28, that the city did not pay the ransom re-
quest in the attack, which shut City Hall for several days and hobbled many vital city functions for more than a week. Not paying the ransom “is incredibly significant,” said Chris Prewitt, chief technology officer of cybersecurity risk management firm Inversion6, who
joined Wilson on a two-person panel at the event to talk about how the city handled the attack. Prewitt also is the regional leader for the Ohio Cyber Reserve, a group of IT experts who train and respond to incidents such as Cleveland’s attack. (He said it’s “a bit like a group of vol-
unteer firefighters.”) Prewitt was part of the city’s effort to get back online and safely restore services that were shut down when the breach was identified on Sunday, June 9. In many cases, governments, See ATTACK on Page 18
VOL. 45, NO. 33 l COPYRIGHT 2024 CRAIN COMMUNICATIONS INC. l ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
SPORTS BUSINESS Ohio’s Division I college football budgets include big Bucks — and everyone else. PAGE 2
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