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New and returning county committee chairmen who attend next month’s Leadership Conference, "Commitment to Lead" in Columbus will receive program-specific training and hear from various speakers, including Ira Blumenthal.

Blumenthal is president of CO-OPPORTUNITIES, Inc., an Atlanta-based business development company that has counseled clients such as Coca-Cola, Nestle, Kroger, McDonald’s, Wal-Mart, Sara Lee, United Artists, Delta Airlines, Home Depot and others.

He has served as a visiting professor at The Food Industry Institute at Michigan State University and The Foodservice Institute at the University of Notre Dame. He created the first restaurant-branded food court in an American supermarket and has led the conversion of more than a dozen foodservice brands into retail consumer packages. He is a leader in the national fight against hunger as an advisory board member of Foodchain, a national food-rescue network.

He has been featured and interviewed in a wide range of media sources, such as The Wall Street Journal, People Magazine, BrandWeek, Entrepreneur, USA Today, CNN and others.

On Aug. 16, all chairmen will choose among four different break-out sessions: broadband technology for rural Ohio, a preview of the fall election ballot, behind the making of the Our Ohio television program and OFB Foundation.

Registration for the event begins at 9 a.m. Aug. 15 and concludes with the Our Ohio Launch Party over the lunch hour Aug. 16.