Industry Finds a Prominent Place on Ohio’s Innovation Council

(TNS) — Some of Ohio’s most prominent names in business, tech and venture capital will advise Lt. Gov. Jon Husted’s new state government innovation initiative.

Husted’s office on Monday launched the website for InnovateOhio, the expansive but poorly understood new government department which Gov. Mike DeWine tapped Husted to run shortly after taking office in January. Prominently featured on the new site is a video in which Husted describes his vision for InnovateOhio, which aims to use technology to improve Ohioans’ lives and streamline government operations.

Along with the website launch, a list of InnovateOhio advisory board members also was unveiled. The 14-member board will be chaired by Falon Donohue, CEO of VentureOhio, a Columbus trade association for venture investors, tech firms and universities.

The board’s members also include:

• Amy Brady, chief information officer for KeyBank, the publicly traded, Cleveland-based retail bank
• Bernie Moreno, the Cleveland entrepreneur who got rich in the luxury-auto business, but lately has been heavily shifting his business focus toward investing in blockchain technology. Moreno’s newfound enthusiasm for blockchain led Cleveland’s civic leaders to organize the “BlockLand” technology conference and has influenced ongoing efforts to launch a large technology hub somewhere in Cleveland.
• J.D. Vance, a venture capitalist whose bestselling memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” helped him get his foot in the door with state politics
• Mark Kvamme, a venture capitalist whom former Gov. John Kasich tapped as the first director for JobsOhio, the state government’s private economic development arm. He’s currently a partner in Drive Capital, a Columbus-based venture capital firm that focuses on investing in the Midwest.
• Lou Von Thaer, president and CEO of Battelle, the Columbus research firm
• Matt Scantland, co-founder and CEO of CoverMyMeds, a fast-growing insurance tech company founded in Columbus which McKesson Corporation recently bought for $1 billion
• Alex Timm, CEO and co-founder of Root Insurance, a growing startup insurance company based in Columbus
• Robert McDonald, a partner in Taft Stettinius & Hollister, the prominent Cincinnati law firm

The board members will not be paid, according to a written executive order DeWine issued on Monday creating the board. Husted will chair the advisory board’s first public meeting on Wednesday.

During the December lame-duck session, state lawmakers created InnovateOhio as a new state department, and gave Husted a $176,426 salary to run it. That’s 55 percent more than Husted would have made had he taken his lieutenant governor salary. DeWine in his state budget plan has proposed giving InnovateOhio a $5 million annual budget.

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