Last year, we made the bold assertion that 2006 would be “the year
of the shake up.” Then 2007 came along and we were left shaking our
heads wondering how we could have been so naive. Over the past 12
months, several big-name Columbus area leaders made headlines.
In January, Robert Werth retired from Vorys, Sater, Seymour and
Pease LLP. The following month, Mark Barbash left the comfy confines of the Columbus Department of Development for a more high-pressured economic development position with the state of Ohio.
Then, just a few months later, Karen Holbrook retired from The Ohio
State University and moved to Florida.
The seismic shifts continued in August as Leonard Schlesinger,
Limited Brands’ No. 2 man, suddenly quit his job. And they culminated in October when Larry Hilsheimer traded his Deloitte &
Touche-embroidered polo shirt for a Nationwide one.
All in all, dozens of regional leaders moved up and down the list.
Some experienced gradual increases or minor declines; others made
great leaps or took less graceful falls. And 10 people who appeared
on the 2007 Power 100 list were replaced with 10 newcomers, led by
E. Gordon Gee, who returned to the OSU president’s office after
stops at Vanderbilt and Brown universities.
Here then, is the 2008 Power 100 list of the most influential business, civic and political leaders in Central Ohio as ranked by our editors.
— Additional research by Kaitlin Laubscher
