- [Narrator] Production and distribution of city club forums on Idea Stream Public Media are made possible by PNC.

And the United Black Fund of Greater Cleveland Incorporated.

(upbeat music) - Good afternoon, and welcome to the City Club of Cleveland.

Where we are devoted to conversations of consequence that helped democracy thrive.

It's Friday, July 14th, and I'm Kristen Baird Adams, president of the City Club Board of Directors.

On behalf of the City Club staff and Board, it is my honor to introduce Ronn Richard.

President and CEO of the Cleveland Foundation.

For one last City Club conversation, before he retires from his role after 20 years at the helm.

Richard will conclude his tenure, after the second longest serving head of the foundation, behind only Leyton E. Carter, who led the organization from 1928 to 1953.

In conversation with Ronn, and also joining us on stage today is Tony Richardson, president of the George Gund Foundation.

Ronn Richard, as I believe all of you know, has undoubtedly had a profound impact on the Cleveland Foundation and the greater Cleveland community it serves.

During his tenure, Ronn has done so much.

He and his team have done so much.

Leading transformative investments in public education, neighborhood development and revitalization.

Arts and culture, advanced energy, leadership development, research, innovation and so much more.

He also doubled the organization's endowment.

And grew its annual grant making to record levels.

He oversaw the Cleveland Foundation's move, to its new headquarters at Euclid Avenue, in East 66th Street.

And lead planning and fundraising for the catalytic development of the Midtown Collaboration Center.

Which will bring anchor institutions that provide essential services into the neighborhood.

And of course, he set the stage for the next generation of leadership the Cleveland Foundation with Lillian Curry, set to succeed him.

(audience applauding) Here at the city club, we have been beyond blessed.

By not only the generosity, but the vision of Ronn and the Cleveland Foundation.

In the fall of this year, we will be making a move of our own, from our current home here, at eight 50 Euclid Avenue, to our new home in the heart of Playhouse Square.

The Cleveland Foundation has been a long and very strong partner of ours for many years.

Supporting conversations around climate elections, civic engagement, journalism, democracy and more.

And today, it is with great pleasure that we announce that the Cleveland Foundation has committed $1 million, to the City Club, in support of our build out.

And moved to 1317 Euclid.

(audience applauding) Ronn, on behalf of the City Club of Cleveland and your entire team, we are so grateful to you and to the Cleveland Foundation.

Which is joining a growing number of guardians of free speech.

And their support of continued conversations of consequence, that help democracy thrive.

And we have some very exciting news, additional good news, to share in the near term.

For today's forum, we will hear from Ron and his insights and lessons from his tenure at the foundation.

As well as his perspective on the role of community philanthropy in moving greater Cleveland forward.

If you have questions for our speaker, you may text them to 330-541- 5794.

That's 330-541- 5794.

Or you may tweet them @thecityclub.

The City Club staff will do its best to work them into the program.

Members and friends of the City Club, please join me in welcoming Ronn Richard and Tony Richardson.

(audience applauding) - Great, so we're gonna get started here.

Ronn, I want to thank you for the Club.

For all that you do for our community.

For the platform for sharing the forum.

And also wanna thank Ronn, for the friendship comradery and your leadership here in the community and nationally.

So with that, we're gonna jump in.

Ronn, obviously Cleveland's been home for you and your family for the past 20 years.

But you're originally from the nation's capital.

And I'd like to start there, 'cos I'm curious to get a sense of how your earliest influences in upbringing has influenced your values and your leadership style.

- Oh wow.

Wow, well, let's see.

You know, I think, it's funny when you get to my age, you look back on your childhood and you see things a lot more clearly.

You realize the impact that things had on you that you never realized when you were younger.

And I think when I look back on my childhood, there are, in addition to having the best brother in the world.

Who was my bodyguard through all my high school years.

I think there are three things that really influenced me greatly.

I think the first was growing up in the nation's capital.

When you grew up in Washington, DC as a little kid, you know, you sort of think, like every town has like the White House and the Congress.

But you realize that it's a very special place.

You drive by the Supreme Court.

You drive by the White House.

You drive by Congress.

You drive by the State Department.

And you know, even as a little kid, you somehow come to understand the importance of the balance of powers.

The rule of law.

The underpinnings of our democracy.

You really have an appreciation for the genius that was the Constitution.

Which you could see.

The original Constitution when I was a kid.

And and you still can.

And the Declaration of Independence in the archives.

In the National archives.

And, I think growing up with that, and all the history just down the road, was George Washington's Mount Vernon.

Up on the hill was Robert E Lee's house, which is now Arlington National Cemetery.

Because the First Battle of Bull Run, when union soldiers were killed.

President Lincoln was so angry at Robert E. Lee that he decided to make his front yard the Arlington National Cemetery, to pay him back.

There's just all this history around me.

And I think even as a kid, a deep appreciation for our Democracy, and not to take it for granted.

I think that was one thing.

I think a second thing was, we lived in Potomac, Maryland, which is a very affluent area.

A lot of very wealthy people.

We weren't, I would say.

Well we were upper middle class for sure I would say.

But there were two elementary schools in Potomac, Maryland.

There was the one that was pretty much all white and wealthy kids.

And there was another one, that had really poor kids.

White kids who called themselves white trash.

And African-American kids in an area called Toby Town.

Which was a disgrace for one of the richest counties, in the country, that we could have the kind of poverty you would think of in Alabama and Mississippi.

For this black enclave.

And those kids all went to Trevala Elementary School.

And there were a lot of liberal families on our street.

And they sort of thought that, maybe it would be cool for us to send our kids to the poor kids school.

So that, you know, because it was racially integrated.

So Mike and I ended up at Trevala Elementary School.

Which you know, probably had the worst teachers in the county, and the worst facilities in the county.

But it was a incredibly...

I didn't realize this till 20 or 30 years later.

The imprint that it left on me as a person.

I would go to the homes of my friends.

I remember being a third grader, going to sleep over at a friend's house who didn't have a bed.

Didn't have any art on the wall.

Didn't have a book in the house.

Didn't have running water, you know, in the house.

I remember going to friends at Toby Town who, you know, washed their clothes in the Potomac River.

And, what I really remember the most was the skills that these kids had.

You know, you'd go to one kid's house, he could play the banjo or the guitar.

You know, belting out, you know Hank Williams or something.

And you go to the other kids and they were like building a snare to catch rabbits.

For rabbits do at night, you know.

And kids that could take a lawnmower apart and put it back together.

I could never do that.

And I just realized that a lot of these kids whose English wasn't great.

You know, didn't have the best grammar.

I realized don't ever confuse language for smarts.

The skills they had.

I was so impressed with them.

And without realizing it, like it really helped me understand persistent poverty.

In a deep way.

And it really helped me understand, like the dignity of everybody.

Had a really important impact on me.

And the third thing was, we didn't have grandparents.

But we had this crazy great Aunt Frieda who lived with us, every summer of my life.

Who was, you know, Russian, but now you would say Ukrainian, you know.

From the Ukraine.

Who came over here as an adolescent.

Worked in a sweat shop in New York.

Started as like a 12 year old, getting into union organizing, Was like fired for union organizing.

Ended up in Detroit.

You know, helping to create the United Auto Workers Union.

And, she was the short feistiest thing.

And she gave us a lot of tough love.

A lot of love.

But most of it was tough love.

She liked to read the Wall Street Journal every morning and she would walk around all day with it rolled up.

And if I said anything she didn't like, she'd whack me on the head.

And say, that's newspaper talk.

But she taught me so much.

She had been such a part of the progressive era.

She lived with Jane Adams at whole house.

You know, she had a best friend that she lived with.

That lived with us every year too.

They were like Mutt and Jeff, you know.

Aunt Frieda, you know, educated the university of hard knocks in life.

Helen, the daughter of a Baptist minister in Mississippi who was the first minister to invite African Americans to join his church for which it was firebombed.

She went to Vassar.

She spoke Greek and Latin like a super book educated person.

And was one of FDRs brain trust people, who to set up the Social Security Administration.

So I had these two people who had lived history and who would talk about the progressive era and the strikes at Ford Motor Company.

And Frieda was jailed several times at Cook County jail.

For being arrested at at protests.

And you know, they just taught me so much again about the dignity of the working man.

And so all these kind of things together, I think really imprinted me more than anything.

- That's amazing.

And thanks for sharing and situating this context around family and community.

I know you also had an amazing professional journey as well.

And you started your career in the foreign service.

And have held a myriad of senior management and leadership roles.

Including that the CIA and Panasonic.

I'm curious to get a sense, and I'm sure folks are here.

You know, how did you know, not just your personal experience, but how did some of the professional experiences and positions you've held... You've also sat on nonprofit boards.

Corporate boards.

How has those experiences together, sort of informed your work at the Cleveland Foundation, in the philanthropic sector more broadly?

- Okay.

Well I think it was wonderful that I had the opportunity in my life to serve in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors.

And I think that it would be great if everyone could have a chance to work in different sectors, because you really do learn different skills.

There's some skills in common.

But, you really learn different skills.

In the foreign service, you know, you're trained to... Every two years you get a new posting.

And you're trained that you're gonna drop into a country.

You gotta learn the language.

You gotta learn the politics.

You gotta learn the culture.

You gotta learn the history.

You gotta learn the society.

And you gotta learn how to be effective.

And, so that was very helpful to me when I parachuted into Cleveland and had to learn, you know, how Cleveland works, you know.

And I'll never forget on my first day, I called what I thought were the most important leaders.

My first day, and one of 'em was Myron Robinson, who was head of the Urban League.

And I was calling them all to say, could we have lunch?

And you could tell me about Cleveland And Myron said, let's do it today.

And I went to lunch and he said, the first thing you need to know Ronn, is this is a tough town.

This is a tough town.

It's a really tough town.

And he was, he was right.

(audience chuckling) But, I think, you know, that those skills in the foreign service, 'cos every every town has its own culture, you know.

Business culture, corporate culture.

I think, you know, and then went to to Panasonic, where I was in charge of head of R and D for North America.

And then in charge of all the headquarters functions.

So, you know, marketing, advertising, public relations, government affairs.

Environmental issues, philanthropy, et cetera.

So, you know, in the corporate world you learn, you know, how to interview, how to hire, how to fire.

How to motivate.

How to manage a very diverse workforce.

In my case it was like a lot of Japanese, who were very different from the Americans that worked for me.

Who were all types of Americans.

Puerto Rican Americans.

You know, African American Americans.

And you name it.

A lot of ethnicities in New Jersey.

I learned all the kind of corporate skills, you know.

That you need, budgeting, personnel management, all that.

Then I went to the CIA, where I was a managing partner of their venture capital fund.

And there I really learned a lot again about innovation, about investing in people really.

'Cos what I really learned in one sentence from those few years, was you bet on the jockey not the horse.

You know.

And that was a very good skill to have at the Cleveland Foundation, because, well, going back to Panasonic, when I first came here.

I learned that we could enhance our brand.

So using a lot of the things that I learned from working at a top 10 world brand company And then, you know, venture capital investing is no different than figuring out, who to give grants to.

And a lot of it depends on how much confidence did you have in the leader of that organization to really execute on what they say they're gonna do with the money.

And so I do think all those things, you know, helped me succeed here.

- Yeah, so moving along, you're really close friends with your predecessor at the foundation, Steve Mentor.

- Yes.

- And when you came to the foundation, you know, I was told that Steve and the board charged you with taking the foundation to the next level.

Can you talk a little bit about that, and and your approach during those first years on the job?

- Yeah, and I do miss Steve terribly.

Wish I could talk to him now, so he could give me some pointers on how to have a successful retirement.

(audience chuckling) - But yeah, well the first thing that I know that I needed to do, I probably overdid it to be honest with you.

But I went on a listening tour.

I think I visited like every single nonprofit in, you know, for the first nine months.

Like every day I would have a day where I'd visit like eight different places from, you know, every hospital to every arts organization, large and small.

To every hospice.

To every everything.

Talked to a lot of people.

Probably was a little too external my first night months.

To be honest with you, if I had to do it over again.

But I learned a lot.

And then I decided to, ask people who they respected the most nationally in the field.

And so I went on, across the country to four or five places to speak to people, and had been in the field for a long time.

And that was a very, very valuable listening tour.

That the main learning that I got from that tour, was I visited the Annie E. Casey Foundation in Baltimore, and I visited Judy Rodden who had been head of University of Pennsylvania as president.

But then became head of the Rockefeller Foundation.

I visited them both.

Both of them had done projects where they, you know, tried to revitalize the area around Johns Hopkins University of Baltimore.

In the case of Annie E. Casey and around Penn in the case of Judy Rodden.

And they both had very low income African-American neighborhoods surrounding the universities with a lot of blight.

And they both thought that they would renovate the area and it would be good for everybody.

And they both told me that it led to total gentrification.

And which they regretted deeply.

And because they hadn't planned for success.

And they said, if you ever build your own headquarters, make sure you control all the land around you, so you can guard against gentrification.

Which we have done.

Which the new Cleveland Foundation headquarters.

Doug Nelson and I spent a lot of time together.

He was president of Annie E. Casey Foundation.

Not a super well known person nationally as he should be.

He's really one of my heroes.

We were on a bus one time heading to a conference, you know, they have a bus that takes you from the hotel to the conference center.

And I was sitting next to Doug, and he said, you know, I just wrote this white paper.

I'm retiring, and you know, for what it's worth, maybe it could help somebody, you know.

Here have a copy.

And it was short, but it was really impactful.

And it was like in my fifth month here, something like that.

And it said, you know, why is philanthropy so cowardly?

You know, we don't have to worry about quarterly earning statements.

We don't have to get reelected.

We should be the ones taking big risks to lower the risk for the public sector and the private sector to come on in.

We should be the test bed for the nation.

But we're not.

We're very conservative because we don't want anyone to say, you gave a grant and it failed.

So I came back and I said to the board, we really give a ton of grants, you know.

Countless number of $30,000 grants.

You know, $40,000 grants.

And I said, I think we should give far fewer grants.

But far bigger grants because you really can't move the needle unless you give someone, you know, a massive grant.

So very quickly after that, we started giving impactful grants.

So it's really proud, we had only given $1 million grant in our history before I got here.

It was in the seventies to get Case and Western to merge into Case Western Reserve University.

It was kind of a bribe, you know.

If you guys merge, we'll give you a million dollars.

(audience chuckling) But we quickly started giving, you know, five, 10.

Not too long after that, $40 million single grants.

And so, one thing I felt very strongly was that Cleveland was in a very difficult situation 'cos we'd stopped innovating.

And you can't have a great major city without a first class research university.

So we gave $5 million to start the Great Lakes Advanced Energy Institute.

We gave, I think it was $5 million to start the Center for Proteomic Medicine.

Which is now called the Center for Proteomics and Bioinformatics.

You know, we started shoring up Case at a time when, you know, Case had a precedent that lasted a very short period of time.

There was a lot of disillusionment.

And we wanted to say, come on everybody, you know, we have to help Case get back up to where it needs to be.

I'm very proud that we put a stake in the ground.

And a lot of people followed us, that it's time to get behind Case with everything you've got.

And they've had great leadership.

And Case is in a really strong position now.

So, you know, those are some of the things that I learned and, and tried to bring.

And I would just add, that we've always been a very innovative foundation, but when I got here, probably 80% of the grants that went out of the door, 90% were reactive.

Which is, grant request comes in over the transom, you say yes or no.

And, and now we're probably 70 or 80% proactive, you know.

So instead of giving... Paying for school books, textbooks for the school system, with teachers that were art teachers, teaching chemistry, we decided no, we're gonna spend tens of millions of dollars to engage in a very serious public school reform effort.

That required public policy advocacy.

And grants and all sorts of other, you know, partnership building.

And, and so all of this things, I think came from previous experiences that I'd had.

- Absolutely.

So we're gonna go off script a little bit here, Ronn.

'Cause I think there's something here.

So the Cleveland Foundation folks are, what is he gonna say?

It's all good.

Ron, Ron, Ron, Ron's ready.

So to move and have those sort of bold ideas and to be impactful and catalytic in a community.

In your role, you need to have strong board, and a supportive board.

Can you talk a little bit about how you brought your board along.

How you engaged the board?

And, there's a lot of nonprofit folks and partners here.

I'd love to hear a little bit about that.

It's not here, but I'm sure you... - Sure.

Well, one of the most beautiful experiences of my life and best learning experience I ever had, is I was on Spelman College's board for about 10 years.

Under the magnificent... Well I was there for three presidents.

But, brought on by Johnnetta Cole.

I need five hours to tell you what I learned from Johnnetta Cole, just by watching her in action.

Boy, she knew how to work with the board.

She knew how to curate a board.

How to work respectfully with the board.

How to get everyone on the same page board and staff.

And just watching her over all the years.

And you know, faculty that have tenure aren't the easiest staff to get in line, because you know, they can do what they want, and not get fired.

But Johnetta was a master at getting people to do hard and difficult things without getting anyone upset.

You know, I think I've been pretty good at getting people to work together and do hard and difficult things.

I'm not sure about that, without getting anyone upset part.

But, but yeah, I think I took a lot of lessons from Johnetta, when I came.

And, you know, worked hard to bring on wonderful board members.

We've always had wonderful board members.

I love the board that hired me.

I'm still dear friends with all of them.

And some are in this room.

But we've had terrific boards.

And the respect between the board and the staff, it's been such a pleasure.

It's such an honor to work with the foundation.

- Absolutely.

And so Ronn, I know another, in relation to that, you talked about Johnnetta Cole, obviously and tenured faculty.

One of the things that the Cleveland Foundation did is, you had term limits on sort of program staff at one point, in the foundation's, at your tenure at the foundation.

Can you talk about what you learned from that.

And, how did that help advance?

And, you know, the foundation and community.

And what are your thoughts on that?

- Yeah.

And I can't remember if we ever had formal term limits on this.

We have on the board.

But 10 year terms, you know, two five-year terms.

But not on the staff.

But it's really important to have new blood coming all the time.

And so we found lots of ways to do that.

With senior fellows.

With internships.

With national urban fellow interns.

And all kinds of other young new blood coming in constantly.

And nobody ever wants to leave the foundation.

So, you know, we added a lot of slots over time.

Because we had more work to do.

And that brought in new thinking.

And, you know, I think it's very important.

And you know, I always say that you can't, you know, foundations should be, you know, institutions of renewal.

And you can't renew externally if you don't renew internally.

Which is one reason why this was a good time for me to step down.

And have the amazing Lillian Curry take over.

You know, because you just need that.

It's important for institutions to have that, you know.

But I think it's great if you can have that with some continuity.

Lillian's been there 18 years, and knows every nook and cranny of the foundation and how everything works.

And will take things in her great new directions, with her great leadership style.

I think that, it's always hard for big institutions to figure out how to not get stale.

And I think we've worked hard to try not to get stale.

- That's the point.

That's the point.

So, you talk about the future, what are your hopes for Cleveland?

As Cleveland moves forward into the future.

- Oh, I have so many hopes for Cleveland.

My first hope is if you go back and look at every one of my annual meeting speeches for the last like 10 years, I had the same line in there every year.

Which was, I'm proud that with our partners, we helped revitalize the spine of Cleveland.

You know, Euclid Avenue, downtown.

Certainly we saved Playhouse Square.

Which kept the lights on downtown for a long time, just before I got here.

But I kept saying that it's great that the spine is stronger, but what about the ribs?

We've gotta go into the neighborhoods.

We can't be a great city leaving half the population behind.

(audience applauding) And it takes every tool in the toolbox.

It takes improving the school system, which we've tried to do.

It takes providing every type of social service you can think of from, you know, prenatal care, through hospice care.

Everything in between.

It takes after school arts enrichment programs.

It takes peacemakers alliance violence interrupters.

You know, it takes good healthcare.

It takes no lead in the house that's, you know, harming our kids and harming their ability to learn.

It takes, you know, getting rid of health disparities.

It takes getting rid of economic disparities.

And systemic racism.

And so, you know, I think we've tried to fire on all those cylinders.

So, my first hope is that the neighborhoods in Cleveland will come back.

They will be vibrant.

There won't be food deserts.

There won't be health deserts.

There won't be arts and entertainment deserts.

Everyone will have a good school and good preschool.

It's my first and most ardent hope for Cleveland.

I hope that we will continue public school reform forever.

Because society's changing, jobs are changing.

Schools have to change.

We can't have the, you know, 1940s industry model of schools forever.

You know, it's a different world.

And we have to have great trade schools, because there's a lot of really talented people, that want to go into the trades, and we desperately need them.

So, you know, I wish for that, for Cleveland.

I wish that we will become the biotech capital that we can become if we get a lot better, at utilizing our own IP and keeping the IP and the companies that spin out from that IP here in Cleveland.

And I think we really have a chance.

And I know that cases and CSU are really focused on that.

So, we should be a biotech capital.

We can be.

And we should be an advanced energy capital.

That the lowest hanging fruit.

And the most difficult and frustrating thing for me is that while I applaud our state in so many ways.

We have such great public policy in so many areas.

The one area, that I think the state is really lagging behind in, is in advanced energy.

We know how to bend steel.

We should be the wind turbine manufacturing capital of the country.

(audience applauding) You know, we should be the solar energy capital of the country.

We should be the green hydrogen capital of the country.

And public policy is standing in the way.

So, you know, that's my one piece of advice to the legislature is, you know, why not have one of the fastest growing industries in the world.

When the only thing that stands in the way is politics.

Other red states like Texas, Iowa, Kansas, they're rushing forward with advanced energy.

And I don't like to see Ohio behind anyone in anything.

So, hopefully, that'll be an area we improve in.

Those are some of the things that, you know, I really wanna see for Cleveland.

I wanna see, as I mentioned shamelessly in my speech yesterday, I'm such a big believer in the power of the arts to change lives, that I want every single neighborhood in Cleveland to have a fabulous arts mastery program.

And so our kids have wonderful wholesome things to do.

So we can not have them getting into trouble in gangs and such like.

The talent here, the number of Einsteins, and you know, Picassos and other... Just you saw, if you were at our meeting yesterday, you saw, you know, the dance, the choral music, the classical guitar and the orchestral.

Wonderful talented young folks that we have in this community.

So, you know, let's not leave any talent undeveloped in Cleveland.

That's my biggest desire.

- Absolutely.

So I'm gonna flip that question Ronn, and I wanna be mindful of time for Q and A.

A lot of folks here, I'm sure have questions for you.

But when you think about Greater Cleveland, what are some of the lessons or insights the city, sort of the region, can share with the world and the country?

There's a lot of great things happening here as well.

So I'm curious to hear your thoughts on those things and what can we share?

- Well, off the top of my head, I think we can share our public school reform effort.

Led ably by Helen Williams here.

I think it's a model for the nation.

When you have a 30% increase in graduation rates, given all the poverty here.

And all the other impediments, that's pretty amazing.

And I think that should be shared with the country.

And the way we did it.

With starting with 26 new, brand new high schools.

You know, reinventing the portfolio of new schools, was the way to start.

And then getting the whole community involved on both sides of the aisle.

To change public policy, to let our schools be successful.

- So really quickly, Ronn, you can't mention Helen without saying Anne.

They're like.

- Yes, yes, yes.

No, that's true.

That's true.

- [Helen] I like.

(audience applauding) - Thank you, thank you, Thank you for that catch.

I would've hated myself if I left here.

Didn't mention it.

Who used to work at the Cleveland Foundation, where she learned everything she knows.

And brought it to the Gund foundation.

So yeah, those two dynamic duo, who I love dearly.

Really led this public school reform with the great superintendent of schools.

I think the second thing is, and I'm really excited about this.

Is, you know, we have these two strong areas in Cleveland, at least two strong ones.

University Circle and downtown.

But we had this no mans land in between.

Midtown, Huff, long disinvested in.

Redlined area.

And my desire, since the day I got here.

And I would drive down from Shaker Heights.

And drive down Chester through Midtown and think, you know, you go to DC, there isn't like a square block that hasn't been beautifully developed.

And you know, you'd come here, and you'd say, how could a great city have this area, that's been uninvested in for 50 years?

And so, you know, we moved to Midtown to hope to stitch together the east and west.

And then really get into the North and South, in Huff and Fairfax and Central, and really, you know, bring back this, the neighborhoods in this city.

And I think that's a national model.

And I'm already hearing, because Connie, my wonderful board chair, went to the annual meeting of the CEOs, and board chairs of the top community foundations.

I couldn't go 'cos I was sick unfortunately.

But Connie went for us, and described what we were doing.

And I had so many calls from my colleagues saying, you know, our long-term lease is ending in six years.

Can I come to Cleveland and see what you did and understand it.

And I think that every foundation in the country should move into the most disinvested part of their town and and really start to have equitable investment.

So I'm gonna push that in retirement in a big way.

I think that other things they can learn, is I think our arts mastery program.

And our creative fusion program of making our wonderful arts scene.

Not just Eurocentric but you know, multicultural.

I think those have been great things for Cleveland, for our kids to see artists from all over the world come here and then for them to have in their own neighborhoods.

You know, wonderful opportunities to engage in.

The highest quality arts offerings.

I think that's another Cleveland Foundation kind of invention that should go national.

And we learn from our peers all across the country and everything we do too, as well.

But I think those are some of the things that we can share with the world.

- That's great, and we're right on time.

Got you, got you.

All good.

(audience applauding) - We're about to begin the audience Q and A I'm Kristen Baird Adam, president of the City Club board of Directors.

We are joined today by Ronn Richard, retiring president and CEO of the Cleveland Foundation.

Moderating today's conversation is Tony Richardson, president of the George Gund Foundation.

We welcome questions from everyone.

City Club members, guests, students, and those giant joining via our stream @thecityclub.org or our radio broadcast at 89.7 idea stream public media.

If you'd like to tweet a question, please do so at the @thecityclub.

You also may text your questions to 330- 541- 5794.

May we have our first question please?

- It was moving to hear about your childhood in Washington DC, and the influence it has had on you.

Has that also influenced what you think should be the role of a community foundation in democracy building or democracy sustaining efforts?

- Yes, absolutely.

Absolutely, it has.

And I'm worried about our democracy.

I really am.

I was a history major.

I loved history growing up, 'cos my great Aunt Frieda and my mother who, you know, grew up in the Belfort orphanage in Cleveland, always wanted to be a teacher.

Started, you know, worked as a secretary in the day and started junior college.

And then college at night over, I don't know, nine, 12 years maybe.

To get her degree and become a teacher.

And then got her masters and became a teacher of all the AP classes and world history and whatnot.

And I think that...

So I love history, and had a lot of people who loved history in my life.

And I think that, you know, Americans have kind of forgotten the importance of what it means to be a citizen.

And that means you have an obligation to be an informed citizen.

Which is why I love the City Club so much.

And you know, why you have an obligation to participate.

You know, if you look at our voting rates, it's disgraceful.

In Australia, if you don't vote, you get fined.

I wouldn't mind bringing that to this country.

But, you know, my childhood and witnessing poverty, which I would not have witnessed if I hadn't gone to that school.

You know, really let me know that government has a role.

And I really get disturbed when people criticize government.

Government is incredibly important.

Everybody hates government until there's a hurricane in their area.

And they need the government to come in with FEMA.

And I don't know about you, but I just applied for Medicare, 'cos I'm at that age, and it was so easy.

I mean it, you know.

And I don't think there are too many Americans that don't get their social security check on time.

And I think our legal system is the foundation of our democracy.

And you know, I saw a lot of kids growing up, that it resonated me so much when I came to Cleveland and went in these neighborhoods, because I could put names to those faces.

They weren't the names of the kids in Cleveland.

But they were the names of the kids I went to school with.

Some of whom ended up in jail by the way.

Kids with so much talent that I respected so much.

And in any other neighborhood would've become an engineer or a physicist.

And Bess will tell you that, one day someone came to cut our grass, when we were living in Potomac, after I came back to work for the CIA.

And we looked at each other, when he came to get paid, and I said, don't I know you?

And he said, don't I know you?

And we ended up in the backyard having a beer for several hours.

One of the kids that I went to school with, who I remember as the kid who was like taking engines on cars apart and putting 'em back together.

And, so yeah, it had a really important view of my childhood on my life.

And what it means to have a functioning democracy.

A functioning democracy is where everybody has an equal shot, and everyone gets pulled up.

- Hi Doris.

- Hi.

First, I wanna thank you, for caring about every nook and cranny of this town and all the people in between.

I am reminded in thinking about you, and what the great work you've done of Colin Powell.

Who when he retired, was lost.

At first.

He joked about it in every speech.

He figured it out.

But because I am joined by everybody here who loves you, I want to know what Bess and you, are going to do in taking care of yourself in your retirement.

(audience applauding) - Well, I don't know yet.

'Cos things have been so frantic with two building projects that I haven't had a ton of time to think about me.

But I do know, I do know this.

My first goal, my wife is gonna be happy to hear this.

My first goal is to get in shape.

I've been carrying an extra 25 pounds for way too long now.

So I am gonna spend the first two hours of every day working out.

So hopefully, you'll see a schwelt me in the future.

It's gonna be costly.

I'm gonna need all new clothes.

(audience chuckling) But I'm willing to do that.

I want to get in good shape.

I wanna reinvent myself.

There's so many things that, you know, when you work the kind of hours I've worked my whole life, you know.

I want to read all the classics, or take a course on the classics, you know.

I want to take a course in mechanical engineering 'cos I wanna to learn how to take a lawnmower apart and put it back together.

Even though I don't own a lawnmower, 'cos I live in a condo.

(audience chuckling) You know, I want to get fluent in Spanish or at least proficient in Spanish.

So that my son won't laugh, every time I try to speak to him in Spanish.

I, yeah, really do wanna study foreign languages.

I wanna try to get good at guitar.

Which will be hard, 'cos I have no musical talent whatsoever.

But I'm gonna make an attempt.

So, I think I wanna spend, and I wanna do a lot of hiking.

And Bess and I want to travel.

We've got our list of countries we want to go to.

And wherever our son is posted.

'Cos he's just joined the Foreign Service, we'll be hanging out with him.

And I want to spend a lot of time helping our daughter get employment.

'Cos she has autism, and if we don't help her find a job, she won't have one.

So, that's gonna be one of my to-do lists.

But I think I want to, you know, kind of goof off about a third of my time.

And then figure out, how to contribute to society in a really meaningful way.

With the other two thirds of my time.

And I haven't figured that one out yet.

But Bess and I'll be walking along a beach sometime soon.

And, I'll just let ideas percolate up.

And magically I'll figure out, how I can contribute here.

But I look forward to it.

And of course, we're not going anywhere other than some magical trips.

You know, we're gonna always be in Cleveland.

And you know, I got Dick Pogue in the audience.

My role model for how to be, you know, useful to society.

Every day of your life forever.

So Dick, I'm gonna try to be one 10th as wonderful as you've been, in terms of contributing here.

And, if I can be one 10th as successful as Dick, I'll be very happy.

(audience applauding) - Thanks.

Good afternoon.

I'm Emily Campbell, from the Center for Community Solutions.

Thank you for everything you've done and everything the Cleveland Foundation has done under your leadership.

But you talked about taking risks, and risks don't always pay off.

Can you talk about something that was a disappointment or a failure.

And what you learned from it?

And what we should learn from it?

- Ah, wow, that's a good one.

That's a hard one.

Well, I will be perfectly candid with you, I actually said to my board early on.

I just came from running a venture capital fund.

In the venture capital world, like 90% of what you invest in goes South.

But if the other 10% is Google or Amazon or Intel, you know, you do just fine.

So what percentage are you willing to let me do?

If we're taking big risks to have big impact, how often can I fail?

10%, 20%, 50%.

Where's your comfort zone?

I thought the board would say like 5%.

They said like 30%.

You can fail at 30%.

There's only one thing that we haven't succeeded at yet.

And that's the Lead Co project, which is very near and dear to my heart.

Something like 18.

Actually in my interview for this job 20 years ago, they said, we won't hold you to it, but just off the top of your head, you know.

Name some wild and crazy things you'd do if you got this job.

And one of 'em, I said was, Cleveland should be the first city in America off the grid.

To protect from cyber attacks.

And to clean up our air.

'Cos, Ohio has like some of the dirtiest air in the country.

And it's terrible for the health of our kids.

Especially our low income neighborhood kids.

And we know how to bend metals, so we could create massive number of jobs here, if we're like the wind turbine capital of the world.

And the board allowed me to do a really risky thing, and try to build an offshore wind farm off Lake Erie.

which is called Lead Co.

Which I've chaired for, I don't know, 15 years now.

And we had to do 10 years of bird studies.

And 10 years of bat studies.

And a wind map of the entire Lake Erie.

And, and you know, we attracted Fred Olson from Norway.

Who came and put $10 million into the project.

But we needed 15 permits.

And we got, you know, 14 of the 15.

And then we were denied the final permit, because I won't name the companies, But certain companies like Murray Cole.

You know, decided that it wasn't good for coal to have wind power and you know, use their influence to block us.

And we all know what happened with First energy and all that stuff.

And we just couldn't get a utility company here to buy the power from us.

So, we finally got the 15th permit, but by then Fred Olson had said, Ohio is so backward in their energy policies.

We're not putting any more money into this.

And so we've struggled.

It's the only thing that we haven't gotten over the finish line, despite a valiant effort.

I hope we succeed.

We may not.

But at least at some point in the near future, since Texas is putting up wind power like crazy.

Texas, an oil state, right?

Which has saved their bacon recently, when they had the super high heat.

Their wind and solar saved Texas, right.

Not exactly the most liberal state in the union.

And you know, Ohio will inevitably come to realize that, you know, here's what I always say.

- [Tony] Let's go Ron.

- Here's what I say.

(audience chuckling) - Imagine.

Yeah, we all know the Wright brothers invented aviation in Ohio, right.

Just imagine if the Wright brothers invented the plane.

And then the railroad industry, you know, did some shenanigans in legislature and got the legislature to vote to ban the takeoff or landing of planes, right.

Would there be no aviation industry?

Would there be no United Airlines?

Of course there would.

It just would Cleveland wouldn't have Wright Patterson or NASA Glenn, right?

We are depriving ourselves, as a state of massive numbers of jobs.

I was in talks with Siemens and Gamesa to put two wind turbine manufacturing plants in Cleveland.

Because we didn't have an RPS bill.

They went to Iowa.

5,000 jobs we lost, right.

So, I'm so proud of the State.

The Governor's done an amazing job in so many areas of economic development.

We attracted Intel.

Great for Ohio.

I'm so proud, I'm so happy.

We're really doing great in so many areas of economic development.

The glaring example of what's missing, is advanced energy.

But, I gotta tell you, if we don't get Lead Co. done this year or next year, or in five years.

15 years from now, there will be massive number of offshore wind turbines in the Great Lakes.

And when the time comes, they'll have our wind map and our bird studies, and our bat studies, and our navigation studies, and our aviation studies.

So, you know, there's an old saying in Japan, nothing is wasted.

Like something that was done always gets used later.

I hope that, that will be the case.

That's the only thing we haven't succeeded in yet.

But I'm proud that we tried.

And I'm proud that we got the ball as far down the football field as we did.

And as I said, I know they're gonna be there.

New Jersey just is putting 99 wind turbines that are gonna fuel 500,000 homes, off their coast.

So we'll get there, sometime.

- Thank you very much for your long service and dedication and diligence.

And all you, in the foundation have done to try to improve greater Cleveland.

Make it as good as it should be.

So I think many of us could agree that the quantity and quality of mainstream journalism is going South and not getting any better.

And the foundation has made a significant investment in an alternative media entity.

Which I think, is still finding its footing, Signal Cleveland.

People maybe need to connect with that a little bit more.

Could you talk a little bit about why you regard that as an important investment?

If you have a preliminary evaluation, how it's doing?

What would be the criteria for you to say it was a success?

And long term, do you see that there'll be a need for the Cleveland Foundation and other foundations on non-profits to actually play a bigger role in subsidizing entities that keep the public informed?

- Yes.

Well, I think we're all really worried about the state of media in the country.

It's been a long time since Walter Cronkite was the most trusted man in America.

Where everyone knew if Walter Cronkite said it, it was true.

Whether you liked the news or not, you felt it was true.

Now we're all in our different silos.

And I think that, you know, journalism is a fundamental part of democracy.

Which is why, freedom of the press was in the Bill of Rights.

The founding fathers understood that.

And certainly they had their share of, you know, lousy journalism in their day too.

But it's very important.

And I'll tell you, I'm very proud of Signal.

And frankly, you know, I have the most wonderful job in the world.

Because in my job, you get to know all the political leaders, you know.

You get to meet with the Governor and the Mayor and County Exec and senators and Congressmen.

But you also get to meet with every level, you know.

Every anchor institution had, but also, you know, gang members of Cleveland that came to my office.

So I could find out like, how can we prevent you guys from killing each other?

And, so you get to meet everybody in town.

And frankly, I got pretty sick and tired of only reading negative news about what happens in our low income neighborhoods.

Because when I go into our low income neighborhoods, I see beautiful people, who are love their neighborhoods.

Who are doing great things.

With great kids, doing great things.

And you know, all you would read is about.

(audience applauding) - And you know, all you read is about crime and negative stuff.

And the beauty that is here, the strength that is here.

The inspiration we can derive from these kids.

And the obstacles they surmount, that I could never have surmounted.

The strength of our kids.

We've got great kids in this town.

- [Tony] Absolutely.

- You know, so I'm proud that... And I hope that, that will influence mainstream journalism.

You know, we have the documenters.

People that are running around documenting things.

I hope mainstream journalism will take a page from that.

- My question is, what were you most surprised by, when you first came to Cleveland?

And what changes that you have seen over the last 20 years, politically, socially, and culturally in Cleveland?

- [Tony] Great question.

Great question.

- Well, what was I most surprised?

I kind of was most surprised by how down Cleveland was on itself.

You know, the Quiet Crisis series was running.

And everybody seemed like they were moping around.

Like, and I was like, this is the greatest town in the world.

You got this great lake.

You know, you've got these amazing arts institutions.

Great universities.

You know, but at the same time, you know, certainly I saw, that there were these very neglected areas all over the place.

And underutilized assets all over the place.

I didn't see people romping around on, you know, the, you know, off of public square, you know, the, what do you call 'em?

Something A, B, and C. What is it?

You know, the malls A, B, and C. But you know, you see what Graham Veasey has done in Hinge Town.

Brought back a whole new neighborhood.

Ohio City.

You know, near West Side.

Just been amazing growth and development.

And we want to see that same kind of innovative growth and development.

Cool kicky neighborhoods on the east side too.

Which we're working for.

So I, yeah, I think that the biggest surprise was that Cleveland had so much going for it.

But nobody realized how much they had going for it.

You know, believe me, I'd lived in St. Louis.

So I knew how much Cleveland had going for it.

(audience chuckling) (audience applauding) - Thank you.

Thank you to Ronn Richard and to Tony Richardson.

And thank you, to all of you for joining us today at the City Club.

Today's forum is presented in partnership with the Cleveland Foundation.

The City Club is so grateful for your support of our year-round programming and efforts.

And of course for the generous gift, that we announced today.

We also would like to welcome guests at the tables hosted by the Center for Community Solutions.

Charles Bolton, the Cleveland Foundation, Cuyahoga County Community College.

Global Cleveland.

Greater Cleveland Partnership.

Huntington.

PNC.

The George Gund Foundation.

Legal Aid Society of Cleveland.

Trust for Public Land.

Youth Opportunities Unlimited.

Thank you all, for being here, and for your support.

On Tuesday, July 18th, the City Club will host our final discussion in a four-part series in Public Square.

Ali Lukacsy-Love from the Greater Cleveland Partnership will lead a conversation about the role of public art in the public realm in downtown Cleveland.

We will continue our free outdoor series every Friday at noon in August in the plaza at Playhouse Square.

And next Friday, July 21st, Michael Walden of the NYU School of Law, we'll discuss his new book, the Super Majority.

How the Supreme Court Divided America.

You can learn about these forums and others and also access our archives.

Including that for today's forum @cityclub.org.

And that brings us to the end of today's forum.

Thank you once again to Ronn Richard and to Tony Richardson.

And thank you members, friends and guests of the city club.

This forum is now adjourned.

(audience applauding) - [Narrator] For information on upcoming speakers or for podcasts of the City Club.

Go to cityclub.org.

(intense music) - [Narrator] Production and distribution of City Club forums on Idea Stream Public Media, are made possible by PNC.

And the United Black Fund of Greater Cleveland Incorporated.