In-Person | CEO Insights: Douglas Kridler, The Columbus Foundation

February 21, 2024 @ 7:30 am – 9:30 am

CEO Insights | Exclusive Interviews with Central Ohio Leaders

The Columbus Chamber of Commerce created CEO Insights in 2013 with the goal of sharing localized ideas, trends and best practices in critical areas including leadership, management, innovation, and others. The series is defined by conversations with regional leaders in a studio-type setting.

CEO Insights is hosted by Colleen Marshall, anchor of NBC4 at 6 p.m., 7 p.m. and 11 p.m.

CEO Insights Guest:

Douglas Kridler, President & CEO, The Columbus Foundation

Join us for a conversation with Douglas Kridler at our February CEO Insights program.

Douglas F. Kridler is the fifth president of The Columbus Foundation, a community foundation serving the central Ohio region since 1943. In 2022, the Foundation awarded over $300 million in grants to more than 4,400 charitable organizations in such fields as education, health, social services, community development, urban affairs, and the arts. As of 12/31/22, the Foundation’s assets totaled $3.2 billion.

Kridler is also an Independent Director and chair of the Investment Committee of Nationwide Mutual Funds, with over $90 billion in assets under management in an array of mutual funds, and also a former member of the Business Advisory Council of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.

Prior to joining The Columbus Foundation as President & CEO in February 2002, Kridler served as the President of the Columbus Association for the Performing Arts (CAPA), during which time he oversaw the expansion of CAPA from one theater in Columbus to owning/operating six theaters in Columbus, the Chicago Theatre in downtown Chicago, and the legendary Shubert Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut. During his tenure, Kridler undertook restorations of the Ohio, Palace, and Southern Theatres, and produced a wide-ranging selection of over 1,800 concerts and events.

Before his selection as CAPA’s President, Kridler was part of the national campaign staff for Senator John Glenn’s Presidential Campaign, and worldwide Tour Manager of The Cleveland Orchestra, as well as Concerts Director of Blossom Music Center, its 18,000-seat summer home. He is a past chair of the International Society for the Performing Arts (ISPA), an international organization of leading arts professionals from more than 50 countries in every region of the world.

Kridler has received the 2023 Community Visionary Award from Central Community House, the Community Shelter Board’s Mel Schottenstein Leadership Award, was named a Champion of Diversity, was CEO Magazine’s CEO of the Year, and has been inducted into the Central Ohio Business Hall of Fame and included in The King Arts Complex’s Legends and Legacies. Kridler has also received the Governor’s Arts Award and The Columbus Foundation Award. Kridler has served on the Boards of Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce, CDDC (Advisory), and Experience Columbus (then called Greater Columbus Convention and Visitors Bureau), for which he also served as Chairman, and is a member of The Columbus Partnership.

Kridler earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in Arts Management from the University of Utah on a Ford Foundation Fellowship, and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Ohio Wesleyan University.