CINCINNATI — The Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky African American Chamber of Commerce announced on Monday the inaugural members of its newly formed 2046 Commission.
The chamber created the commission "to highlight the next 25 years of progress for Black businesses in the Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky region" and to "explore innovative ways to strengthen the foundation of Black businesses with an eye towards preparing the ecosystem to be competitive and welcoming to the next generation of Black entrepreneurs."
The 2046 Commission is made up of 15 regional leaders with backgrounds in economics, finance, purchasing and investing, as well as policymakers.
The commission is a result of a groundbreaking study in partnership with the University of Cincinnati Economics Center that showed Greater Cincinnati Black businesses support more than $1.4 billion of operations expenditures and are responsible for directly employing 8,680 people with $540 million in earnings throughout the Cincinnati Metropolitan Statistical Area.
The commission will focus on areas including municipality infrastructure and public policy; supplier diversity processes within the medical industry, with an emphasis on regional hospitals; funding and access to capital; innovation and competition; business-to-business opportunities in diverse industries; and attracting and retaining diverse talent.
The members named to the 2046 Commission board on Monday include the following individuals:
Stacey Browning, Managing Director at CincyTech; Jason Dunn, Group Vice President, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion for the Cincinnati USA Convention & Visitors Bureau and Chair of Greater Cincinnati Northern Kentucky African American Chamber of Commerce; Larissa England, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Partner for The E.W. Scripps Company and Vice-Chair on the Board of Directors for the African American Chamber of Commerce; John A. Moore President & CEO of Moore Air; Dr. Rachel Angel, Founder and CEO of Peerro; Oscar Bedolla, International Strategy and Finance Senior Manager with Amazon; Tammy Bennett, Dinsmore & Shohl, LLP Partner, Chief Equity & Inclusion Officer; Kelly Bonnell, Executive Director of Main Street Ventures; Rep. Sedrick Denson, Ohio House of Representatives; Terri C. England, CEO of The England Project, LLC; Crystal German, Principal of Prosperity Labs; Darryl Haley, CEO and General Manager, Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority; Hon. Shannon Jones, Warren County Commissioner and Groundwork Ohio Executive Director; Chris Powell, CEO of Talmetrix; Rep. Rachel Roberts, Kentucky House of Representatives; and Demario S. Tucker, Lead Reliability & Maintenance Engineering Manager with Amazon’s Air Division.
