Join us for a Conversation with Former U.S. Senator for Ohio Rob Portman for our inaugural Richard W. Pogue Leadership Conversation. Moderating the conversation will be CSU|LAW Dean Lee Fisher. In 2010 then Congressman Rob Portman and then Ohio Lt. Governor Lee Fisher were the respective Republican and Democratic candidates in a race for the U.S. Senate. Congressman Portman won the election, and Senator Portman and Dean Fisher will discuss that election campaign and the need for bipartisanship, civility, and open and inclusive dialogue not only in American politics but in society at large.
This event is co-sponsored by the P. Kelly Tompkins Leadership and Law Program at Cleveland State University College of Law and The Beth E. Mooney Center for Transformative Leadership at Cleveland State University.
Rob Portman’s career in public service has spanned three decades and included service in three presidential administrations, as well as two terms in the United States Senate and six terms in the United States House of Representatives.
In the George W. Bush administration, he served in two cabinet-level jobs, as Director of the Office of Management and Budget as well United States Trade Representative. Under President George H.W. Bush, he served as Associate Counsel to the President and Director, White House Office of Legislative Affairs.
Known for his civility, successful bipartisan policymaking, work ethic, and grasp of a broad range of complex issues, over 220 of Portman’s bills were signed into law by Presidents Biden, Trump, and Obama during his tenure in the Senate. He served as the lead Republican negotiator on the bipartisan infrastructure law that is making historic improvements to our nation’s roads, ports, rails, bridges, broadband and more.
He played a key role in U.S. foreign policy through his seat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and as co-chair and founder of the Senate Ukraine Caucus.
Portman currently serves as the Founder and Chair of the Portman Center for Policy Solutions at the University of Cincinnati and is a Distinguished Visiting Fellow in the Practice of Public Policy at the American Enterprise Institute. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the Procter and Gamble Company, Bechtel Group, Inc., National Parks Foundation and Atlantic Council, and as an advisory board member of other non-profits.
Rob was born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he still lives today with his wife, Jane. Together they have three adult children: Jed, Will, and Sally.
About the Richard W. Pogue Leader Conversations
The Richard W. Pogue Leadership Conversation Series was established at CSU|LAW in 2023, thanks to a generous donation from Richard W. Pogue.
The Pogue Leadership Conversation Series is an important component of the P. Kelly Tompkins Leadership and Law Program at CSU|LAW established in 2018 by Kelly Tompkins ’81, a member of the CSU|LAW Hall of Fame, and Dean Lee Fisher through a generous donation by Kelly Tompkins. The Leadership and Law Program seeks to educate students not only to be great lawyers but also to be great leaders.
P. Richard ("Dick") Pogue is a member of the CSU|LAW Hall of Fame and is a member of the Executive Committee of the CSU|LAW Board of Visitors. He is Senior Advisor and former Managing Partner (1984-1992) of Jones Day, one of the largest integrated law firms in the world. He is widely known as “Mr. Cleveland” because of his decades of extraordinary legal and civic leadership in Northeast Ohio.
This CSU|LAW series gives law students and other students throughout the university the opportunity to hear prominent leaders candidly discuss important issues, preparing them to be effective leaders who contribute to real solutions.