Profile: Jodie Bare

Meet Jodie Bare. Chief Innovation Officer at Columbus Regional Airport Authority.

Name: Jodie Bare

Job: Chief Innovation Officer at Columbus Regional Airport Authority

City: Columbus

Q: What do you do at the Columbus Regional Airport Authority?
At the Columbus Regional Airport Authority, we have responsibility for three vital community assets in air space — John Glenn Columbus International, Rickenbacker International, and Bolton Field. We have the privilege of being the origin or destination for people connecting to places all around the world when traveling by airplane. We also play an important role in bringing resources to people via air cargo.

Q: What’s a problem you're working to solve?
Especially in light of the pandemic, it is important now more than ever that we build passenger confidence in air travel. This takes shape in different ways; some involving technology such as contactless park and pay solutions, but also less tech focused and more visible experiences like custodial services.

Our custodial staff can be seen regularly sanitizing, following protocols aligning with our GBAC STAR facility accreditation from The Global Biorisk Advisory Council, which is the the cleaning industry’s gold standard for outbreak prevention, response and recovery.

The bottom line is we are ready when our passengers are ready to travel again. Health and safety will always be first. We remain committed to innovation and always looking at how we do what we do differently to better serve our passengers.

Q: What’s a lesson you’ve learned that's shaped your work?
My job as a CIO is to enable the business. I must be an advocate for my team and run interference so they can do their best work serving our customers. Frequent and regular communication and follow-up with follow through will go a long way in setting expectations and solution execution.

Q: What’s a trend in technology or innovation that doesn’t get enough attention?
There is no shortage of solutions available in the world. Too many times we get caught up in the sales pitch, the promise of the future with solution ‘x’, the shiny object, and/or the cool factor.

When looking at innovation, I think it is important to pay attention to the actual problem needing solved and people impacted by the problem and potential solution. What is the value impact of the potential solution and how do you know you are done or achieved success?

Furthermore, establishing a culture where a level of failure is safe will help create a culture of innovation, particularly when failing fast and pivoting is tolerated. Having the mechanisms in place to capture feedback frequently, have critical and reflective conversations and healthy conflict through retrospection will only support collaboration and producing results.

Q: What’s one moonshot idea that could help make Ohio a world leader in technology and innovation?
Put Ohio on “the” map – we have a lot of awesome ‘stuff’ happening across the state – including innovation and technology initiatives from digital health transformation, three unicorn start-ups, shared mobility, smart cities advancements, and many others. We need to market Ohio more as an innovation and tech state (not just farming!).

For Columbus – develop a city life that will inspire people to want to live here (beyond those who want to raise a family). A downtown vibrancy that extends outside the Short North on the weekends and beyond the normal eight-to-five business week downtown. A downtown that is on the waterfront, with pedestrian walkways and boutiques, restaurants, bars, more variety in art (not just fine arts) and live music all “right there”.

Columbus is a wonderful city to raise a family; to continue our growth in tech and innovation, we need to be more than that to attract and keep talent – especially tech talent. This is especially interesting in the time of transitioning to a work from anywhere model.

Climate doesn’t necessarily work in our favor… what does? The cost of living, proximity to various places outside the state, ease in traveling in/out of CMH, and imagine if we had a booming downtown lifestyle. With a robust talent pool, an innovative city, and people wanting to live in Columbus, businesses will be even more inclined to want to set up shop in Cbus!

Q: What’s a recent book, podcast or news story that you found interesting?
Brenae Brown: Introductory podcast to her new Dare to Lead series. It is a timely podcast around courage and transformational leadership.

The foundation is opening with this question: What, if anything, about the way people are leading today needs to change in order for leaders to be successful in a complex, rapidly changing environment where we are faced with seemingly intractable challenge and insatiable demand for innovation?

The answer from many world leaders in various industries was Courage. There is much to unpack in this podcast and it had me pausing a lot to reflect and think about my own leadership style and experiences. I love books or podcasts that move me like that because those are the moments I grow.

Q: What's your favorite place in Ohio?
Forever my favorite place in Ohio will be the Galena and the Africa / Cheshire road area in Columbus. This is a special area I lived for 18 years. Where I raised my kids.

There are many, many special memories from running at the dam for years training for various events, taking my son to cross-country practice in the summer and running the beach far enough away from him where I couldn’t be seen but I could see him, driving my daughter around nearby neighborhoods to raise money for orchestra, to taking a beach blanket and hiking the woodsy trails to get the best view of the fireworks, sitting in the backyard smelling the campfires from the nearby campgrounds, or just sitting at the boat dock on a summer evening with the family full of gratitude we had each other and lived in such a beautiful area.

Q: What makes Ohio special to you?
It is the state where I found myself, who I am and what I want to be. I became a mother and raised two amazing kids in the Buckeye state. I also discovered my career and kept growing professionally thanks to awesome mentors over the years and a wonderful tech community in Columbus!

Connect with Jodie on LinkedIn.