Leslie Wexner
Limited Brands Founder, Chairman & CEO
Leslie H. Wexner, Founder of Limited Brands, started the company in Columbus, Ohio in 1963 with one store and first year sales of $160,000.
Mr. Wexner serves as Chairman, President and CEO of Limited Brands, which includes Victoria’s Secret, Pink, Bath & Body Works, C.O. Bigelow, La Senza, White Barn Candle Co. and Henri Bendel. The company’s products are available at over 3,000 stores around the world and online at www.VictoriasSecret.com, www.BathandBodyWorks.com, www.HenriBendel.com and www.LaSenza.com.
His areas of community interest include the Wexner Center for the Arts at The Ohio State University; the Wexner Institute for Pediatric Research at Children’s Hospital, Columbus; the Martin Luther King Center for the Performing Arts, Columbus; and the Wexner Heritage Village. Mr. Wexner was a recipient of The Alexis de Tocqueville Society Award of the United Way of America, Woodrow Wilson Award for Citizenship, Ordre des arts et des letters, Knight of the Italian Republic and The American Jewish Committee Herbert H. Lehman Centennial Leadership Award. He was a founding member and the first chair of The Ohio State University Foundation.
Mr. Wexner is Chairman, The Ohio State University Board of Trustees; Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; Member of the Visiting Committee of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University; Trustee of the Columbus Jewish Federation and Foundation; Member of the Royal Shakespeare Company International Council; Member of the John Glenn School of Public Affairs; and Chairman of The Columbus Partnership.
Mr. Wexner has a profound interest in the development of tomorrow’s leaders through the works of the Fisher College of Business at The Ohio State University; Harvard University’s Center for Public Leadership; and The Wexner Foundation.
Mr. Wexner holds a B.S. degree in Business Administration from The Ohio State University and honorary degrees from The Ohio State University; The Hebrew University of Jerusalem; University of Tel Aviv; Hofstra University; Marietta College; Hebrew Union College; The Jewish Theological Seminary of America; Yeshiva University; and Brandeis University. Mr. Wexner was inaugurated by Harvard University into the Society of John Harvard Fellows, and serves as a visiting lecturer at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.
Mr. Wexner and his wife, Abigail, are the parents of four children.
Dr. E. Gordon Gee
Dr. E. Gordon Gee is president of The Ohio State University, a world-class public research institution and one of the nation’s most distinguished land-grant universities. As chief executive officer, he oversees Ohio State's six campuses, 65,000 students, and nearly 48,000 faculty and staff. Gee is among the most highly experienced and respected leaders in higher education, having been named in 2009 by Time magazine as one of the top 10 university presidents in the United States. Prior to his service at Ohio State, he led Vanderbilt University (2001-2007), Brown University (1998-2000), The Ohio State University (1990-97), the University of Colorado (1985-90), and West Virginia University (1981-85).
Born in Vernal, Utah, Gee graduated from the University of Utah with an honors degree in history and earned his J.D. and Ed.D degrees from Columbia University. He clerked under Chief Justice David T. Lewis of the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals before being named a judicial fellow and staff assistant to the U.S. Supreme Court. In this role, he worked for Chief Justice Warren Burger on administrative and legal problems of the Court and federal judiciary. Gee returned to Utah as an associate professor and associate dean in the J. Reuben Clark Law School at Brigham Young University, and was granted full professorship in 1978. One year later, he was named dean of the West Virginia University Law School, and, in 1981, was appointed to that university’s presidency.
Gee is a member of several education-governance organizations and committees, including the Big Ten Conference Council of Presidents, the Inter-University Council of Ohio, the Business-Higher Education Forum, and the American Association of Universities. He also serves as co-chair of the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities’ Energy Advisory Committee. In 2009, Gee was invited to join the International Advisory Board of King Adbulaziz University in Saudi Arabia. Active in a number of national professional and service organizations, he also serves on the boards for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, Inc. and the National 4-H Council. In 2011, Gee was appointed to serve as secretary on the Board of Directors of Ohio’s economic development program, JobsOhio.
Gee has received a number of honorary degrees, awards, fellowships, and recognitions. He is a fellow of the prestigious American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world’s largest science organization. In 1994, Gee received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of Utah, as well as from Teachers College of Columbia University. He is the co-author of eight books and the author of numerous papers and articles on law and education.
Gee’s daughter, Rebekah, is the Director of the Louisiana Birth Outcomes Project, and an assistant professor of Public Health and Medicine at Louisiana State University. She is also a Norman F. Gant/American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology/IOM Anniversary Fellow.
Columbus Mayor Michael B. Coleman
Since taking office in 2000, Mayor Michael B. Coleman has built Columbus’ reputation as one of the best cities in the nation by building stronger, safer neighborhoods and creating jobs by maintaining a high quality of life.
Under Mayor Coleman’s leadership, the City of Columbus has been recognized this year by NewGeorgraphy.com as the best city in the Midwest for job growth, and by Fox News, Forbes and Bloomberg Businessweek as one of the top 10 cities in the nation for college graduates. Columbus has also recently been recognized as one of the 10 best large cites and one of the 10 most affordable metro areas by RelocateAmerica. It was recognized as the nation’s 8th best place to live by CNN and Money magazine, which also declared Columbus as the nation’s safest big city. Underwriters Laboratories, a respected independent product safety certification organization, ranked Columbus second in its 2010 Safest Cities for Families with Young Children. Forbes has recognized Columbus as the top up-and-coming tech city, the top city in which to retire.
Columbus regularly makes top rankings as a hot destination for relocation of businesses: It was ranked as the 7th best metro area for business by WSJ MarketWatch; it was ranked the 7th best city for high-impact companies by the U.S. Small Business Administration; it was ranked as the 3rd “Big City of the Future” by international fDi Magazine and the 4th “most business friendly.” In addition, Columbus continues to earn top rankings for its stable housing market, affordability, and as a top city for African-Americans, young professionals, and members of the GLBT community.
Mayor Coleman has leveraged incentives to create and retain more than 92,000 jobs and bring more than $6.4 billion in private investment to Columbus throughout his tenure. Growing companies enjoy an educated workforce from 18 regional colleges and universities. Columbus is centrally located to national markets and a growing transportation, distribution and logistics hub. The city, currently the 15th largest in America, is also growing as a retail hub.
Mayor Coleman initiated Neighborhood Pride, a proactive effort to engage residents and businesses to fix up thousands of homes and clean up their neighborhoods. The mayor’s Pay as We Grow annexation policy requires developers to bear the costs of extending water, sewer and electricity. Under Mayor Coleman’s leadership, Columbus has reinvested in older Columbus neighborhoods such as Franklinton, the King Lincoln District, South of Livingston, Northland, Olde North Columbus and South Linden. Columbus also is embarking on revitalization strategies for the Near South Side, the Far South Side, and the West Broad Street Corridor.
In 2006, Mayor Coleman created the Home Again program and set aside $25 million to acquire, rehab and tear down vacant and abandoned houses in Columbus neighborhoods. To date, more than 1,000 homes have been impacted. In 2001, Mayor Coleman created the Affordable Housing Trust Corporation to provide more housing options to inner-city residents. He has increased the development of new homes for families, spurring construction through city incentives of more than 12,500 new housing units. In addition, Mayor Coleman led the restoration of the historic Lincoln Theatre, the linchpin of the King Lincoln District, which has been revitalized after decades of neglect and blight. The area is rebounding with seven major commercial and residential projects totaling $30 million in new private investments.
Mayor Coleman worked with business leaders to start a massive Downtown revitalization initiative. Since 2002 more than 5,500 new apartments and condos have been built or are under development, a new Downtown park system is being designed, 3,000 jobs have been moved into Downtown, and there has been more than $2.18 billion in new investment. In addition, the long-vacant former City Center mall site is being developed into Columbus Commons, a central park space with opportunities for business, residential and retail development.
Mayor Coleman has a proven record of balancing budgets and reforming government. Columbus is the only large city in the nation to maintain an Aaa credit rating from all three major rating agencies. Since 2009, Mayor Coleman has taken steps that will save more than $144 million over the next decade by getting employee benefits in line with the market while reducing unnecessary overtime, increasing the use of technology and making the city more energy efficient. Mayor Coleman, City Council and Auditor Hugh Dorrian have committed to additional savings through their 10-Year Reform Plan.
Columbus has made tremendous strides protecting the environment under Mayor Coleman, who created the ongoing Get Green Columbus campaign. The mayor has made a commitment to improving energy efficiency in older city facilities while requiring that every new city construction project be LEED-certified by the U.S. Green Building Council. The mayor’s Bicentennial Bikeways Plan calls for an additional 36 miles of off-road trails and 58 miles of on-street bike lanes and routes by the year 2015. In addition, more than 100 bike racks have been placed in and around Downtown, and 54 Share the Road signs have been installed on North High Street to remind motorists and bicyclists of their rights and responsibilities. In 2008 Mayor Coleman created the GreenSpot program to inspire, educate and recognize residents and businesses making efforts to protect our environment. The mayor also promised a comprehensive curbside recycling program by 2012 and pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from city operations by 40 percent before 2030.
Mayor Coleman was first elected in 1999, re-elected in 2003 and won a third term in November 2007. He was born on November 18, 1954. He has three children, Kimberly, a private banker in Chicago; Justin, a Columbus police officer; and John-David, a student at Ohio State University. Prior to becoming mayor, Coleman served as President of Columbus City Council from January of 1997 to November of 1999, and as a council member from February of 1992 to December of 1999. Coleman graduated from the University of Cincinnati in 1977 with a degree in Political Science and earned his law degree from the University of Dayton Law School in 1980.
