A Letter From Our Board Chair
Don Taylor
President & CEO, Welty Enterprises, Board Chair, Team NEO
The year 2025 brought meaningful change for Team NEO. In February, we welcomed a new CEO, and later in the year I had the honor of stepping into the role of Board Chair. Together, these leadership transitions created an important opportunity to reset, reflect, and refocus.
From the outset, one of my priorities was to strengthen alignment between the Board and staff through more open and consistent communication, ensuring we are well positioned to guide the organization with clarity and shared purpose. At the same time, the conclusion of our previous three-year strategy prompted us to begin looking ahead, asking critical questions about where we want to go next and how best to get there.
I’m proud of the impact we achieved in 2025 despite the challenging business climate. We see meaningful opportunity ahead for U.S. manufacturing and are positioning the organization to capitalize on that momentum. To do so, we are expanding our business attraction efforts by dedicating staff and strategic focus, including a specialized team devoted to international attraction.
As we enter 2026, that forward-looking work continues. We are in the final stages of shaping our 2030 strategy, one that builds on our recent success while positioning the organization for sustained, long term impact in an increasingly dynamic economic environment.
I am honored to be part of this exciting time in the organization and look forward to your support as we advance business growth and opportunity across the 14 counties of Northeast Ohio.
A Letter From Our CEO
Matt Dolan
Chief Executive Officer, Team Neo
As I reflect on my first year as Chief Executive Officer, I am struck by both the responsibility of this role to make an impact on our region’s economy and the extraordinary opportunity it represents.
I started the year with a 14-county listening tour to meet with our local partners, understand their priorities, and identify opportunities to strengthen the region’s collective impact.
Those conversations reinforced what makes this organization and this region special: a shared commitment to collaboration, a willingness to think strategically, and a collective belief that we can shape a stronger economic future together.
This past year, we built momentum by advancing our core mission — retain, expand, and attract jobs, businesses, and opportunities to Northeast Ohio.
Despite headwinds felt across the state and the country, this report highlights reasons for optimism. We closed a job creation win in all of Northeast Ohio’s 14 counties. We led the state with 92 project wins and also achieved the milestone of having a win in each county.
We elevated awareness of our organization through six published op-eds and more than 125 meaningful media stories featuring Team NEO. In addition, 30 new corporate partners invested in our work, increasing new financial support by 33.5 percent over 2024.
In 2026, we will sharpen our focus on business attraction efforts – including international investment – to expand the region’s global footprint and secure transformative opportunities.
To this end, I traveled to Asia in the 4th quarter of 2025, visiting local businesses and sharing why Northeast Ohio is a smart, safe, strategic place to invest. These conversations help strengthen our regional pipeline and ensure companies understand the value our 14-county region delivers.
I am grateful to our board for its leadership and guidance, to our investors and partners for their confidence and collaboration, and to our team for their dedication and professionalism. Their expertise, creativity, and commitment make this organization stronger and more effective.
As we look ahead, we do so with confidence and clarity. The opportunities before us are significant, and so is our resolve to deliver results that matter— for businesses, workers, and communities across the region. I am honored to lead this organization and energized by what we will accomplish together in the years ahead.
