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Interview with Marc S. Byrnes
and Christopher M. Connor,
2008 United Way Campaign Co-Chairs
Heading up United Way of Greater Cleveland's 2008 Campaign are Marc S. Byrnes (pictured left) and Christopher M. Connor (right), two men from different backgrounds and industries, but with a shared commitment to philanthropy, public service and United Way.
Connor, Chairman and CEO of The Sherwin-Williams Company, serves on the Board of Directors of United Way of Greater Cleveland, University Hospitals and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, on the Board of Trustees of Playhouse Square Foundation, as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Team NEO, as a Trustee of Greater Cleveland Partnership and as Co-Chair of its Commission for Economic Inclusion.
Byrnes, Chairman and CEO of Oswald Companies, also serves on the United Way of Greater Cleveland Board of Directors and the Executive Committee of the Cleveland Leadership Center Board of Trustees. He is a member of the Learning Disabilities Association Advisory Board, Bellefaire JCB Board of Directors and the University School Board of Trustees and Executive Committee.
United Way (UW): Thank you both for taking the time to talk with us. Are you originally from the Cleveland area?
Marc Byrnes (MB): I grew up as a child in the Harvard-Lee area of Cleveland. Later, my parents moved us to Beachwood and then Shaker Heights, where I attended and graduated from University School. Thereafter, I attended and graduated from Williams College in Massachusetts and began my insurance career in Boston, where my wife Viki and I resided for five years. We returned to our hometown of Cleveland in 1981. Today, we live in Hunting Valley, where we've raised three great sons.
Chris Connor (CC): I grew up in Bath, north of Akron. As a matter of fact, my parents still live in the same house in Bath. I live with my wife and family in Chagrin Falls.
UW: Tell us about your volunteer experiences with United Way.
MB: My United Way experience dates back to my college years in Massachusetts. I volunteered with the United Way partner agency Big Brothers Big Sisters there. Later, when I started my career in Boston, I was an active United Way of Boston volunteer. After returning to Cleveland in 1981, I built a financial services and employee benefits firm that later merged with Oswald Companies in 1987. My partners at Oswald introduced me to United Way of Greater Cleveland volunteerism. In 2003, I first served in the Professional Market Group, then co-chaired by Tom Stevens and Bob Rawson, where I was teamed with Sean Hennesey from Sherwin-Williams -- a forerunner of my joining with another great Sherwin-Williams executive today to co-chair the United Way Campaign. In 2004 and 2005, I was blessed to have co-chaired the Professional Cabinet with Gary Bryenton of Baker Hostetler and David Hooker of Thompson Hine, respectively. Thereafter, Todd Clossin of Fifth Third Bank and I worked side by side to lead the Business Market II Group through two successful campaigns with stellar assistance from a dedicated and talented United Way staff.
CC: I was in United Way of Greater Cleveland's Moses Cleaveland Society (editor's note: the donor group preceding Ten Plus and today's Philanthropist Society), back in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and it was a source of great pride to me to be a member of that association. In 1999, I became Sherwin-Williams CEO and began to take a broader role in the community. I worked for a couple years running United Way's Business Market I Group, both with Sandy Cutler of Eaton Corporation and John Brinzo of Cleveland-Cliffs. I've been an active pancake flipper at the Campaign Kick-offs for years and I'm now privileged to be invited along with Marc to co-chair this year's Campaign.
UW: Marc, we've heard that you have a story to tell about you and your family. Can you share it with us?
MB: In the summer of 2006, Campaign Co-Chairs Bob Rawson and Bob King allowed me to share the story of my personal experience involving United Way with the Campaign volunteers. I told the audience that I've been a beneficiary of United Way both in life and in death. Through Bellefaire JCB, a United Way partner agency, I was blessed to be adopted and raised by two beautiful people, Judy and Larry Byrnes. Unfortunately, 41 years later, Judy passed on, and Hospice of the Western Reserve, another wonderful United Way partner agency, was a great help to my dad and me during her illness prior to her death.
Then, last year, through a remarkable twist of fate, I was miraculously found by my biological family through the Internet from a United Way article that had been published about me. I have two brothers and two sisters who had been searching for me, and they were able to make contact through Bellefaire JCB. Since then, I've had a marvelous reunion and spent quality time with my brothers, sisters and biological mother.
UW: Marc, that's a great story.
UW: Chris, would you comment on the new investment strategies that United Way is implementing?
CC: I think it's terrific after so many years of doing such great work that the United Way leadership had the courage to ask whether funds were going to the right places and having the desired community impact as our donors should expect. Sandy Pianalto and many dedicated United Way volunteers have stepped up and done a great job researching and answering these questions. I applaud this effort.
United Way of Greater Cleveland's investment strategies have been revised to be more responsive to our donors' expectations and target specific consumer groups with deliverable and measurable results. I was impressed with the over 7,000 pages of research documents that were produced and studied to develop United Way's new investment strategies. I think this is going to be a home run.
One of the reasons I was willing to co-chair the Campaign this year is because this is exactly what responsible corporations and community organizations such as United Way need to do. From time to time, you need to start with a blank sheet of paper, question your decisions, and rethink them -- and we've done that.
UW: Chris, you're an Ohio State University graduate. Tell us a little about your college days there.
CC: I spent four great years at Ohio State University. Beginning in my sophomore year, I was a volunteer at United Way partner agency Big Brothers Big Sisters in Columbus, where I was a "Big Brother" to a terrific "Little Brother."
I actually met my wife through Big Brothers Big Sisters; she also was an OSU student and a "Big Sister" volunteer. My "Little Brother" and my wife's "Little Sister" lived in a multi-unit house with six other families. So there we were, two college kids bumping into each other on the stairs, where we first met. Two of our kids have followed in their parents' footsteps and are now studying at Ohio State University.
UW: What motivates you to lead the United Way Campaign?
CC: Involvement with United Way and its partner agencies began years ago and has become a lifelong commitment for Marc and me. Throughout our college and professional lives, we've been involved with giving back to the community and reaching out to help others around us. For this reason, it was an easy decision for me to lead the Campaign. I think United Way is the premier community service organization in our country doing this work today.
I'm also inspired by the leadership of this organization -- to have the chance to work with Marc and be a successor to Campaign co-chairs such as Phil Rice, Paul Clark, Bob King, Bob Rawson and so many other great people before them in decades of United Way leadership. It's an honor, a huge responsibility and a humbling experience.
MB: I couldn't have said it any more eloquently than Chris, but I'd like to add that regarding his remarks about the legacy of leadership that we're inheriting from past United Way Campaign co-chairs, I too am humbled by it. To be able to work with friends and clients like Chris in this town on behalf of the 2008 United Way Campaign is a pleasure.
UW: What will be your focus for the 2008 United Way Campaign? How will this year's campaign be different?
CC: Our Campaign theme is "Paint the Town to Insure a Brighter Future." One of the things that impressed me about Marc when I first met him was his belief in the untapped resources in our community -- that there's a huge middle market here that hasn't been engaged as yet to become involved with the United Way of Greater Cleveland Campaign. Marc's firm has a strong insight into who and where those middle market organizations are, so one of our goals is to dramatically expand the number of those organizations that will support United Way workplace campaigns this year.
MB: We're going to establish a base of middle market organizations to approach and lay the groundwork so that it will continue in future campaign years as well. The demographic shift in our community mandates that we prospect the suburbs for potential donors to join us in supporting the United Way Campaign. I like to think of it as acres of diamonds in our community that are yet to be mined. Chris and I will work very hard at an educational approach in reaching these businesses to convince them that United of Greater Cleveland has a positive impact on their companies, the lives of their employees and the community as a whole.
UW: Gentlemen, thanks again and good luck with the United Way of Greater Cleveland 2008 Campaign!
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