Women Of Influence

Sales are up at Ron Jordan’s Hen Quarter restaurant. But will that gain sustain? The owner of the Bridge Park dining spot said the combination of a new menu and a surge in support related to the Black Lives Matter movement are driving that increase. “I do think that some of it, unfortunately, is going to become a blip,” he said. Attention moves fast and customers compelled to spend money at Black-owned businesses last month may not feel that urge next month...

Jodie Bare started her new job as the Columbus Regional Airport Authority's chief innovation officer in early January. Her focus was simple: find ways to use technology to improve the passenger experience. Half a year later, the world looks very different – especially within a travel industry reeling from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. But Bare is still focused on finding ways to improve the passenger experience, even as the world has changed...

In the early days of her career, it wasn't uncommon for Jodie Bare to be one of if not the only woman in a room of her pers. "Men would look to me to be the one to take the notes in the meeting, or order lunch if it was a lunch meeting," Bare said of her early days in the technology industry...

When Dr. Hal Paz stepped into a newly created role at Ohio State University last June, he told Columbus Business First, “I want to be at the place that defines the next century of what healthcare looks like.” No one could have imagined this century. "What has happened in the past year is incredible, unbelievable, remarkable," Paz said, in the latest episode of Columbus Business First's Crisis Management podcast...

When Lorraine Lutton started as CEO of Mount Carmel Health System in early April, Ohio had just passed 100 deaths and 1,000 hospitalizations from Covid-19, and the region's hospitals were almost finished building a field hospital in the Greater Columbus Convention Center. A lot had changed in the world in the month since she'd accepted the job. But Mount Carmel proved it was up to the task, Lutton said, in the latest episode of Columbus Business First's Crisis Management podcast...

One Columbus entered this decade with a sense of accomplishment and a revised mission to do better: Instead of "growth for growth's sake," the organization wants to build equity in every economic development project. Then a worldwide pandemic opened wealth gaps into chasms – making the work of job creation and retention more urgent than it's ever been, while scattering the economic development watchworks to videoconference chat rooms...

The coronavirus pandemic has wreaked havoc on small businesses from across the Columbus community – but Columbus Urban League CEO Stephanie Hightower says that “We may be in the same storm, but we’re not in the same boat.” Minority-owned businesses have been disproportionately impacted, Hightower said in Columbus Business First’s latest episode of our new Crisis Management podcast...

Growing up, Joanna Pinkerton's parents always taught her that she could accomplish anything she set her mind to. "There just was an early emphasis put into my life by my parents that if there's something you want to do ... there's nothing stopping you," said Pinkerton, CEO of the Central Ohio Transit Authority. It was only later in life that Pinkerton, an engineer who was used to finding herself in male-dominated classrooms and workplaces, realized the playing field isn't always even...

Paradoxically, many technology companies have been historically wary of running their business in the cloud, connecting only through technology instead of face-to-face. Working from home was seen as a temporary or emergency fallback, say when a child was home sick. Then the coronavirus pandemic sent pretty much every office worker home, and entrepreneurs were pleasantly surprised to find out how effective that arrangement can be...

Kelley Griesmer recently found herself chatting with a male colleague who found himself struggling to find balance amid the pandemic. With his kids home from school it was hard to start working until midday, and he worried that coworkers would be questioning his commitment to his job as he dealt with distractions at home. “And I said, ‘You realize that’s how working mothers have felt every day of their lives,’” Griesmer recalled...