Kasich names 8 to job-creation panel

Associated Press

COLUMBUS

Gov. John Kasich named a high-powered line-up of business and education executives Monday to the state’s new semi-private job creation board, including four whose companies have benefited from recent state development incentives.

Kasich’s JobsOhio board will include his top jobs adviser, the president of Ohio State University, the chief executives of Bob Evans, Procter & Gamble and Marathon Petroleum and four others. The Republican governor named eight of nine members Monday.

Outside the panel’s meeting, he praised the roster of recruits as a great start for Ohio’s new economic-development engine.

The panel is charged with the job creation role formerly played by the Ohio Department of Development. Members will serve staggered terms lasting one to four years and won’t get paid for their work. Their first task was to set job criteria and salary parameters for selecting a day-to-day director, whom Kasich said will be paid well and be eligible for performance bonuses.

The four-year board appointments went to Steven Davis, CEO of Bob Evans Farms; Gary Heminger, CEO of Marathon; James Boland, retired Ernst & Young vice chairman and former head of the Cavaliers Operating Co.; and C. Martin Harris, chief information officer and chairman of the Cleveland Clinic’s Information Technology Division. Boland will also serve as the board’s chairman.

Two-year appointments were given to Pamela Springer, the head of Manta Media, and Mark Kvamme, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist Kasich initially enlisted for the salary of $1 to help energize the economy.

Ohio State President E. Gordon Gee and P&G CEO Bob McDonald were appointed to one-year terms.

JobsOhio will work closely with six existing regional economic development organizations that were asked to create proposals for coordinating strategies, as well as working with the state Development Department.