Lee Chilcote joins hiVelocity as Managing Editor

Dear hiVelocity readers,

I'm excited to join the team of this growing, innovative publication covering entrepreneurial businesses, people and places across Ohio.

I'm going to use this space to briefly introduce myself and to ask for your help. (Hint: we need your fresh ideas to help us tell the stories of the changing economy across the State of Ohio.)

I am a Cleveland-based writer and Ohio native. For the past 15 years, I have worked in a variety of roles within economic and community development organizations and small businesses.

Like many of the entrepreneurs that we've profiled in hiVelocity, within the past year I've taken my passion and hobby and turned it into a career. My freelance feature writing has appeared in a range of local and national publications. I also serve as Development News Editor and For Good Editor of Fresh Water.

I also have a Master's degree in English from Cleveland State University (CSU), and a Master's in Public Administration from the Levin College of Urban Affairs at CSU. I'm originally from Cleveland Heights, but now I live in the up-and-coming Detroit Shoreway neighborhood in the heart of Cleveland's near west side.

I'm excited about the opportunity to help tell the story of Ohio's new economy. If there's a single theme that unites our state's disparate regions, it's that we are emerging from our economic doldrums to become more nimble, entrepreneurial places that nurture local talent yet also welcome newcomers.

As a Kauffman Foundation study concluded last year, "When it comes to U.S. job growth, startups aren't everything. They're the only thing." The savvy young business leaders profiled in today's issue are just one example of how Ohio's ongoing efforts to nourish entrepreneurial activity are starting to pay off.

hiVelocity is keenly interested in telling the stories of the people, places and businesses that are changing Ohio. You can help. Send us your Tweets, Facebook posts, Youtube videos or just plain, old-fashioned emails, and let us know what inspires you and how you and your colleagues are moving the Midwest forward.

You can send us an email at [email protected].

Yours Sincerely,

Lee Chilcote