Overview
As Communicator in Chief for SpinCo Communications, John Michael Spinelli has a long and distinguished career in the public and private sector. Highlighted by several executive leadership positions with Ohio business associations that made him a public figure without benefit of being elected to office, Spinelli has contributed his savvy communication skills and strategy to employers and clients alike over the years.
Public Sector Experience
He served in the Ohio Senate where he worked as a legislative aide focused on various committee assignments, constituent relations and community outreach.
An original staffer for The Ohio Public Works Commission, he administered $50 million in infrastructure-financing grant funds covering 23 Ohio counties and comprising hundreds of individual projects. While at OPWC, Spinelli's certification as a National Development Council Certified Economic Development Financing Professional enabled him to bring his talents of community wealth building to bear on the creation of the agency's revolving loan program.
Leadership skills are always relevant, as Spinelli demonstrated as Executive Director of Health Check, a consortium of health groups and individuals run under the then-auspices of the Columbus Health Department that coordinated health screenings for the public.
Private Sector Experience
During his days at the chamber, Spinelli took a hitherto failed effort by the City of Columbus to clean it self up and revived it as the Columbus Clean Community System. Now called Keep Columbus Beautiful, the program Spinelli started in 1983 with the help of the Columbus Health Department exists today because it was a great example of combining public resources with the spirit of citizen volunteers to produce an award-winning program Columbus has been proud of for more than 20 years.
Leading the beautiful town of Tiffin, Ohio, in dual capacities as the President and CEO of its chamber of commerce and leader of the Seneca Industrial and Economic Development Corporation, Spinelli brought state development officials to town, served on the regional Private Industry Council group and helped businesses seeking to locate in the community cut through red tape.
For nearly five years, Spinelli owned and operated The Red Tomato Deli & Cafe, his own small business that helped resuscitate an otherwise moribund business association.
Journalism, Travel Writing and Blogging
Immediately prior to joining the Office of Ohio Secretary of
State, Spinelli distinguished himself as a member of the Ohio Legislative Correspondents Association for three years by providing original reporting on statehouse politics and government
affairs for The Hannah Report, a leading
Working his way up the
journalism ladder from a cub reporter covering politics and education issues for Suburban News Publications, a major Central Ohio news weekly, to having his acclaimed business analysis series Profiles
in Business anchor the Sunday business
section of Gannett Corporation's Lancaster Eagle-Gazette, Spinelli has
shown his writing style to be informative, rhetorically diverse and not without a sense of humor.
Combining the photographic skills he honed at the San Francisco Art Institute with his deep passion for travel and the desire to expand his writing to the new world of travel writing, Spinelli, in 2006, created Spinelli on Assignment, a riveting, fast-paced travel blog recounting his journey through five European Union countries in 40 days, as he returned to his parent's two small Italian villages to explore his family roots.
As the youngest member of a family who has always valued travel, Spinelli, prior to entering The Ohio State University, where he studied Spanish and comparative literature, was accepted in 1966 by The Experiment in International Living to live with a Chilean family for four months. This intimate living experience enabled him to become fluent in Spanish and kindled a desire to travel.
An avid travel, Spinelli's passport has been stamped in South and Central America, Ireland, England, France and
Italy and in Greece and Egypt, two of his next destinations.
Spinelli is the author of several travel pieces such as Decoding Paris, a fast-paced jaunt through Dan Brown's book The Da Vinci Code and Paris, the book's key setting, and Rocco's Neighborhood, a an odyssey of taste along an archipelago of restaurants in New York City's Flatiron District.
Creative Authorship
CrissCrossing Ohio, a crossword puzzle that turns otherwise dry government information, facts and news makers into answers that unlock the depth of knowledge readers often miss in their local newspapers, is Spinelli's creation.
While at the Columbus Chamber, Spinelli created The Neighborhood Minute, a series of 60-second upbeat profiles on communities, groups and individuals made possible with the technical assistance of a local radio station that were aired by many other radio stations as a way to better connect with their listenership.
Spinelli was a key player in Columbus being awarded in 1986 the All America City Award for the rebirth of The Short North Arts District and later represented the Columbus Chamber in the delegation of community leaders who received the National Civic League's highest award from then-president Ronald Reagan. Spinelli's work to turnaround an urban neighborhood from blight to beauty was testament to his skills at collaboration and a show of his undaunted pursuit of development objectives many said could not be done.
While at the Columbus Chamber, Spinelli gained recognition for that won an award for "Development Excellent" from President Reagan's House and Urban Development Administration. Spinelli's efforts, which are operational to this day, served as a model for other communities.
As an invited presenter who joined noted urban planners from around the world, Spinelli participated in Designs Montreal by outlining his approach to resuscitating once tired neighborhoods into livable urban areas.
Community Boards and Commission Honors
Spinelli, who founded and served as executive director of the Neighborhood Assistance Fund,is accomplished in raising money or writing grants. His grantsmanship skills bore fruit for Downtown Columbus in the form of new trash recepticles, the Columbus Homeless Shelter in the form of winning a national grant from American Express to forge a program for banking for the homeless and for Kids Voting Columbus, a group striving to instill civics into young adults as a way to encourage them to register to vote as adults that received three years of funding from The Columbus Foundation, Central Ohio's largest community foundation.
To Learn More
To learn how SpinCo Communications can make your special project come to life or how your communications program can become more effective, contact us at spincohio@gmail.com
