FRANKLINTON RISING - Key Persons
Ben Trost has responsibility for all construction and training for Franklinton Rising. He comes from a background in construction with over 20 years of experience in the building industry including 10 years running his own construction company in Virginia. Ben is a graduate of Fuller Theological Seminary in Houston TX. He loves to teach construction and interact with our trainees encouraging and aiding them to lead a purposeful life. He is married to his wife Lori for 20 plus years; they have three teenage daughters.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Retired Architect and Founding Partner of Meacham & Apel Architects
Bob Apel is a semi-retired architect and founding partner of Meacham & Apel Architects, now M+A Architects. He uses his fifty plus years of experience to provide service to people and groups in need with limited resources. He is following the example of Bob Buford as laid out in his book, "Halftime."
Job Titles:
- Treasurer of the Board
- Board Member and Organizer of Buckeye State Bank
Michael is a board member and organizer of Buckeye State Bank, a community bank. He is a founder, treasurer and board member of Franklinton Rising, Inc., a not-for-profit involved in housing rehabilitation and job training.
Michael has over 45 years of private sector business experience. These include a 16 year management career with Corning, Inc., Vice President of Marketing for Richardson-Smith, and President and CEO of Retail Planning Associates. More recently he co-founded and served as President and CEO of American Health Holding, Inc., a healthcare firm now owned by Aetna.
He earned an Engineering Degree from The Ohio State University and a Masters in Business Administration from Syracuse University.
Michael and his wife, former State Representative Linda Reidelbach, reside in Delaware County.
Job Titles:
- Chairman of the Board
- Founder and CEO of Equity, Inc
Steve is the founder and CEO of Equity, Inc, a $75MM per year full service real estate company.
He is also founder and board chairman of Youth Aviation Adventure(YAA), an educational 501C3 that introduces youth, ages 12-18, to aviation. YAA operates Nationally through partnerships with The Ohio State University and the Federal Aviation Administration.
For past 5 years to present, served on the board of Aviation Exploring, an educational division of The Boy Scouts of America, a large not for profit youth organization. He began serving this year on the board of the Youth Aviation Programs Association and assisted in the formation of the organization in 2014
He has served on several other boards including:
Suzanne is retired from Ohio Power Tool, after working for 35 years with her husband at their family business. Her primary duties were the daily administrative tasks including managing the software and computer systems, HR, and all accounting and financial statement reporting. Her prior work experience was as an Executive Secretary at Nationwide Insurance.
Suzanne has spent many years volunteering for various service organizations and ministries. She currently serves on the Advisory Board of the Conway Center for Family Business.
She considers her greatest blessing to be her family. She is married to Jim with 4 children and 10 grandchildren.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Owner of Ragtime Development Company
Todd Alexander is owner of Ragtime Development Company. Currently is Founder/Owner of Newark Station which is a 7 acres mixed use development comprised of an outdoor event center and will soon house Loft Apartments, Earthworks Coffee & Goods, an indoor event center, a rooftop bar and a freestanding fine dining restaurant. He spent 24 years as President of Continental Building Company. Todd has proven success building and managing a $275 million per year organization. He is intimately familiar with all aspects of a corporation as well as building and growing an organization. With extensive experience with Real Estate, Development, Property Management and Commercial Construction he was involved in the development and responsible for the construction of over $4 billion dollars in Site Development. Retail, Commercial Office, Hospitality, Multi-Family and
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Chairman and Co - Owner of Wallick Communities
Tom Feusse is Chairman and co-owner of Wallick Communities, and formerly the firm's CEO for fifteen years. Tom also serves as Chairman of the Board of Columbus Works, is a member of the Board of Trustees of Huntington University, and a member of the Advisory Board of Kellogg Garden Supply. Before joining Wallick, he spent 15 years with the Scotts Miracle-Gro Company.
As a life-long learner, he earned degrees from Central Michigan University and Otterbein College, and completed post-graduate work at Kellogg Graduate School at Northwestern University and Harvard University's Graduate School of Design. He has served on the faculty of Ohio Wesleyan University and is a Certified Public Accountant. A resident of Dublin, he spends time with his family, his church, volunteering, traveling, and on his tennis and golf games.
Since November of 2015 Tom has been President of Franklinton Rising, a Christian based movement of men, women and children, helping young adults to break the cycles of poverty through gaining life and job skills, careers in the building trades, faith, renting and owning homes and becoming productive members of their neighborhood.
Tom was President of Heffner Performance Group, dba Compass USA, a mentoring practice, developing entrepreneurial spirited leaders of organizations with 20-400