Thank You Rob and Uche!
Two of our staff are riding into the sunset
Like all organizations do, we are experiencing some changes, and it is with some sadness that we say goodbye to two of our staff, Uche Adigwe and Rob Thompson. Their departures are close together, but otherwise unrelated (don’t worry, Jacob’s a great boss). Uche has taken his talents to Cincinnati for personal reasons, while Rob is staying close and will continue with us in a volunteer capacity after accepting an offer to be the General Manager of Spin Bike Shop in Lakewood, one of our supporting business members. During their time at Bike Cleveland, Uche and Rob worked on a number of initiatives that furthered our advocacy goals and advanced us as an organization. We are grateful for their contributions.
Uche’s most important work came from spending time in the Central neighborhood as part of our active living programming in the neighborhood. He partnered with the Ohio City Bicycle Co-op to equip grownups and kids alike with bikes, and taught them the skills needed to ride safely. He also deployed the first four Dero Fix-it Stands in Cleveland and 15 bike racks as part of our work in Central to make biking more accessible in the neighborhood. With his Masters Degree in Public Health, Uche understood the link between active transportation and recreation and improving quality of life, and he was passionate about working in these communities to help promote community health.
As our communication manager, Rob led our effort with our public awareness campaign and had a lot of fun acting as the voice of the organization. A big part of Bike Cleveland is telling the story of what we do and why it matters, and Rob’s personality mixed with his training in urban planning made him a passionate and vocal advocate. He’d occasionally get a little criticism about his tactics and tone, but he always felt that a good advocacy organization should occasionally ruffle a few feathers if necessary; as he did in leveraging the power of our supporters in getting HB154 through the House at the state level. Our online presence grew dramatically during his tenure, and he helped plan and execute our events, worked with our local chapters to support them in their efforts, and managed our bike rack program to expand bike parking options in numerous locations throughout the city. Maybe he came to your workplace to give a talk on biking, or perhaps you saw him on TV, in print, or on the radio as our spokesperson. Loud guy with an accent? Yeah, that guy.
These guys will be missed, but their departure brings new opportunity! We will be hiring two new staff members, and look forward to having fresh ideas and backgrounds to help drive the organization. Think this might be you? Know someone who would be a good fit? Then check out our job listings below: