When I was nine, I played ‘town’ with my younger brothers. We’d have a grocery store, a school, always a gas station and a jail, too. We’d plan where the homes and streets would go. Fifteen years later, my brother Jerry opened a pharmacy in my small hometown, and a few years later my brother Tom opened a flower shop. Brother Dave has his construction business based there, too. I was raised with a very strong sense of family and work ethic, and I’m still very close to my brothers. Where they have the expertise in their selected specialties, I have the business skills to help them strategize and grow their businesses.

After high school, I went to work and didn’t start college until I was 27 and able to pay my way through the University of Cincinnati for a B.S. in marketing. I might have been a late starter but I’m a fast study and I soon earned an M.B.A. in entrepreneurship from Xavier University. While in school, I worked in positions and industries that tested, stretched and affirmed many of the theories and formulas I learned at the universities. Mostly I learned how to learn – how to explore, research, test assumptions and find new thinking and pragmatic tactics.

About Kaup

For many years I was a weekday road warrior and traveled the Midwest as a sales manager. At one point I was responsible for 31 broker offices in 11 states. While working as the operations manager for a meat processing plant in Evendale, I volunteered for the entrepreneur committee at Downtown Cincinnati, Inc. (DCI) and fell in love with urbanity. I proudly accepted the position of vice president of marketing for DCI and then expanded my marketing landscape as vice president of tourism for the Greater Cincinnati Convention and Visitors Bureau. I learned collaboration and how to work with all sorts of people. I honed my project management skills and integrated technology into everyday operations and customer service.

I never looked back and I now live in the heart of the city of Cincinnati. In 2007 I took action with my passion for the city and conviction that one is either part of the problem or part of the solution. I ran a creative, positive and thoughtful campaign for Cincinnati City Council. It was an amazing sprint of self-imposed deadlines, pressure and expectations. I enjoyed the most wonderful, insightful conversations with people in every corner of the city.
The greatest outcome of my political campaign was the profound realization that I need to engage my time and talents with projects, programs and processes that make a difference.

Successful special projects require good people skills, and I am an excellent coach and taskmaster. I have worked with all kinds of people and directed large and small projects. Organizing, positioning and motivating projects requires a leader with the ability to identify, prioritize and delegate tasks and manage people, time, resource allocations and efficiencies. My passion is to contribute to the success of meaningful projects that advance the Cincinnati region, its arts, culture, people and communities. Fortunately I have the skills and experience to do that.