photo by steed media service

The value and residual effect of events like the Who’s Who of Black Cleveland cannot be quantified or inventoried on a financial spreadsheet. Wesley Gillespie, a senior vice president at Key Bank, intimates that these galas yield great dividends for all participants, engendering camaraderie and fellowship along the way. An intended corollary of these programs is that it counteracts deeply entrenched, negative stereotypes about urbanites.

“Particularly as you hear all the negative stuff about Cleveland and all the things that, if you are living outside the Cleveland, shines a bad light on it. When you bring [in] influential African Americans like this, number one it shows that we have some prosperity in Cleveland,” says Gillespie, who is Key Bank’s area retail leader. “It’s important that we bring these people together so that we can talk about these things — so that we can share our individual vision for what [we] want to do in Cleveland, because there’s a lot of great stuff going on in Cleveland.” Gillespie ensures that local branches increase revenues by maximizing the products and services that Key Bank sells to its customers. On a personal level, Gillespie says he wants to maximize the profound potential that African American sophisticates innately possess in order to move the community forward.

“Until you bring people together so that you can find that camaraderie, that common ground and that shared vision; you really can’t make anything happen, because you can’t do it alone. So venues like this are absolutely important. That’s why I appreciate Key Bank, one of the platinum sponsors,” he says proudly. “It makes me proud to be an employee of Key Bank, because we understand the critical nature of these events.” – terry shropshire

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