An Akron native, Mark Greer is an economic and community development professional who currently serves as Chief Development & Engagement Officer for the Development Finance Authority of Summit County, where he leads development efforts and community/stakeholder engagement, building relationships with partners and policy makers throughout the region and across the state. He recently served as the Executive Director of the Akron Bicentennial, leading the yearlong series of events and initiatives marking Akron’s 200th anniversary celebrations.
Greer previously served as the City of Akron’s Great Streets Administrator and Small Business Manager, where during his tenure over $3 million in grants were awarded to entrepreneurs, community development corporations, merchants associations, and neighborhood organizations. He is the Founder and Principal of Ulysses McNeal Consulting, a full-service consultant firm specializing in economic and community development, neighborhood planning, urban renewal & spatial justice, strategic planning, and organizational culture. As a public speaker, Mark enjoys engaging audiences through personal experiences and historical accounts of courage, ingenuity, adversity, redemption and triumph. Recent engagements include Leadership Ohio, the Strive Toward Excellence Program commencement, Akron Cleveland Association of Realtors Home For All Podcast, Ohio CDC Association Annual Conference, Mayor’s Citizen’s Institute, Leadership Akron, Heart to Heart Leadership, Federated Democratic Women of Summit County, Roetzel & Andress Annual Associates Retreat, Greater Summit County Minority Business Association, Love Akron Connect, All-Akron Student Engineering Program, PechaKucha Akron, Torchbearer’s Capstone Event, and the Akron Black Male Summit. He has presented on a wide array of topics, including community development, urban renewal, economic development, placemaking, leadership, diversity, inclusion & belonging, education reform, the abolitionist movement, arts education, and community and governmental relations.
Interviews and features include PBS Western Reserve, Ideastream, WKYC, Crain’s Cleveland, Spectrum 1 News Ohio, Fox8 News Cleveland, Akron Beacon Journal, Signal Akron, WAKR, The Summit FM, WCLV, WAOH-TV, The Reporter, Socially Good TV, and The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. His co-authored article, “How Akron, Ohio is expanding economic opportunity by investing in Neighborhood Business Districts,” was published by the Brookings Institution. Greer’s documentary, Beyond the Innerbelt, chronicles the history of urban renewal and the Akron Innerbelt, which razed several predominantly Black neighborhoods and displaced over a thousand families and hundreds of businesses during the 1970s and 80s.
A Leadership Ohio alumnus, Greer received the organization’s 2025 Visionary Leadership Award, the Akron Black Artist Guild Artist Advocate Award, is an Ohio Black Women’s Caucus Significant African American Males awardee, a recipient of the Greater Akron Chamber’s “30 for the Future” award, the BGSU Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship Award, and received a special U.S. Congressional Recognition from Representative Shontel Brown.
Greer serves on the Board of the Summit County Continuum of Care and Tuesday Musical Association. A member of Torchbearer’s Class of 2020, he served on the Leadership & Development Committee and the Diversity & Inclusion Task Force. He previously served as Program Coordinator at Leadership Akron, where his programs included Diversity on Board, Edge Young Professionals, the Green Community Learning Initiative, and Junior Leadership Akron. Prior to joining Leadership Akron, he taught on the faculties of Malone University, The University of Mount Union, Kent State University, the Settlement Music School in Philadelphia, PA, and was Advertising Manager for The Piano Magazine: Clavier Companion, and the National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy.
Greer graduated from Bowling Green State University with a B.M., magna cum laude, in Music Performance, and Kent State University with a M.M. in Piano. Described as a “visionary musician...with virtuosic technique and masterful playing, which was perceptive, brilliant and elegant, showing a musical intelligence beyond his years,” he is an accomplished pianist and composer, making his Carnegie Hall debut at Weill Recital Hall. He has appeared with the Akron Symphony Orchestra, under Christopher Wilkins, the Heiligenstadt Chamber Orchestra under Theodore Albrecht, and has been featured live on Vermont Public Radio. Honors include first prize in the state finals of the OMTA Collegiate Buckeye Competition, prizewinner of the Tuesday Musical Competition, honors in the OMTA Graves Young Artist Competition, the National Olga Klein Nelson Composition Award, and winner of the Bowling Green State University Piano Concerto Competition, where he was the recipient of the College of Music’s Steve Vun Cannon Memorial Award. An avid writer, historian, and documentarian, Greer serves as Assistant Pastor at The Family Church, a non-denominational ministry in Akron’s University Park Neighborhood.