WARREN, Ohio – The hiring of Lake to River Economic Development’s first permanent CEO will position the organization to advance to the next level, its chairman said.
Dani Robbins was named Lake to River’s new CEO, effective Dec. 1, in a news release Wednesday morning. She was selected unanimously following a search process that drew applicants from around the world, according to Charles “Chuck” George, chairman of Lake to River.
“Lake to River has accomplished in less than two years what takes many organizations a decade – building trust, securing investment and defining a clear regional identity,” Robbins said in the news release announcing her hiring. “I am delighted to have the opportunity to work with the Lake to River team, board and partners to build on that record of success and further develop an integrated, intentional and strategic organization that drives economic transformation in Eastern Ohio.”
Lake to River is a private, nonprofit economic development organization and the designated JobsOhio network partner for Ashtabula, Columbiana, Mahoning and Trumbull counties.
The New York native, who started her leadership career in Ashtabula County, succeeds Alexa Sweeney Blackann, who has served as Lake to River’s interim CEO since its formation in April 2024.
Over the 18 months, Blackann and her team provided “a good foundation” for Lake to River, helping to secure $1.1 billion in investment in the region, George said. For a permanent CEO, the board was looking for someone who could help get the organization “to the next level,” he said.
“The organization was a startup and still, in a lot of ways, is a startup,” he added. “What we were looking for is somebody that could help us build that structure and somebody that had the leadership skills and experience to help the whole team build that structure.”
Robbins recently returned to Ashtabula County after serving in senior leadership positions in Washington, D.C., and across Ohio. Most recently, she led the educational strategy at BoardSource, a national nonprofit focused on board governance, according to the JobsOhio release following her hiring.
Before that, she was the director of the nonprofit administration graduate programs at John Carroll University and a small business owner. She also has served as chief executive of domestic violence shelters/rape crisis centers and Boys & Girls Clubs. George said Robbins helped rebuild Boys & Girls Clubs, an organization that “perhaps” wasn’t in the best shape before she arrived, and helped develop a strategic plan to move the organization forward.
Lake to River also is lacking a strategic plan, not from oversight “but from the fact of we were trying to build the foundation and develop the relationships in the four counties to enable the organization to move forward, as well as working on our main mission, which is economic development projects,” he said.
Blackann will serve in a temporary, part-time capacity during Robbins’ transition. She said she is confident her successor will be ready to go by the end of the year, but she will stay on as long as the Lake to River team needs. She described her successor as an “excellent leader, smart and kind,” and predicted she would be an asset to the Lake to River region
“She’s the right leader at the right time,” Blackann remarked. “She has two decades of executive leadership in nonprofits and board governance, and she’s really going to take us to the next level. She understands how to lead organizations through growth. … I think she’s going to be wonderful.”
Blackann has been “really good” to Lake to River, George said.
“She never intended to stay. She was interim CEO from Day One,” he said. “I think she envisioned that maybe she’d stick around a year and that we’d have somebody in place probably nine months ago. We did a thorough search, and it just took longer than we anticipated, probably for all good reasons.”
Editor’s note: Charles “Chuck” George, chairman of Lake to River Economic Development, is a managing partner of Sapientia Ventures, which owns The Business Journal.