The Power 100 Introduction

Power abhors a vacuum. Chaos creates opportunity.

Since 2008, when Inside Business last named Northeast Ohio’s most influential people, economic and political upheavals have shaken and overturned old orders, habits and unwritten rules.

The recession has caused many CEOs to retreat from civic affairs to focus on their companies’ survival. Developers such as Scott Wolstein have retrenched as demand falls and credit tightens — unable to remake Northeast Ohio’s landscape as they once did.

Cuyahoga County’s new charter, approved by voters 2-to-1 in November, rewrote the rules of Cleveland politics.

Yet even in turbulent times — or because of them — some Northeast Ohioans are exercising their strength, executing their visions, transforming the community. Amid uncertainty about health care, Toby Cosgrove is advancing the Cleveland Clinic as a national model of quality and efficient care while working to transform the local economy with the Medical Mart and tech transfers and leading crusades to influence Northeast Ohioans’ health.

Eaton’s Sandy Cutler rustled the ghosts of Cleveland CEOs past to create change, raising money and speaking out for political reform.

Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert married his reputation for a quality product with our angst about jobs and money slipping beyond state lines and emerged as November’s biggest winner, getting voters’ permission to build a casino in Cleveland.

Almost one-third of the 100 names on this list were not there in 2008, and 14 of the 32 new leaders are women. Northeast Ohioans used to lament that our leadership was calcified, that longtime power brokers refused to relinquish the reins. This list proves that’s no longer true. Recession and political corruption are fearsome, destructive forces, but the struggles against them can be transformative: Dynamic leaders step forward. Visionaries surge ahead.

HOW WE DID IT
We started our search for the region’s most powerful by turning to those who know power best: We surveyed the leaders who made our 2008 list, asking them who wields the most clout in Northeast Ohio today, who gained power in the past two years, who lost it and which up-and-comers are already proving themselves. We followed up with interviews, gaining insights into reputations and relationships. Finally, we applied our news judgment, our sense of which men and women most influenced Northeast Ohio’s economy, thinking and progress in 2008 and 2009 and which are poised to influence the region most in the new year. 

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