News

Trustee Neil Comber In The News

From the Annual Report for The Greater Cincinnati Foundation

08/12/08

 An Eye for Reinvention

Neil Comber jokes that switching the Scope bottle from glass to plastic "took longer than putting man on the moon." But the retired PhG brand manager successfully spearheaded the change - now it's hard to remember this everyday product packaged in glass. These days, Neil uses the same focus that made Scope safer for bare feet in the bathroom to champion the region's Hispanic community.

While Neil's leadership is local, he has a global view. Born to a Mexican father and British mother, he grew up in Mexico and attended high school in Canada. Neil arrived in Cincinnati 20 years ago after working in Mexico, England and Spain. Since then, Cincinnati's Hispanic population has grown significantly.

"Several of us have been working quite hard in the last few years trying to figure out how we can make coming to Cincinnatia successful experience for immigrants and how we can get the total community to accept and integrate Latinos," he said.

One solution was the Cincy-Cinco festival, which celebrates Cinco de Mayo, a celebration of Mexican heritage and pride. Neil and co-founder Alfonso Cornejo were concerned that the holiday was being misrepresented. Local university students made headlines with excessive "partymg" and destructive behavior.

"We got together and said, 'you know, this isn't what we're about."' he said. "We created Cincy-Cinco which is a family event. It showcases what the Latino community is all about, not just Mexico. We say it's a success if half the people there are Hispanic and half the people are not. We'll have succeeded because we're bringing people together."

May 2008 marked Cincy-Cinco's fifth anniversary. All proceeds go to local nonprofits that in some way benefit the Hispanic community.

Neil is also the driver of the local Hispanic Scholarship Fund. He and others have raised over $1 million dollars for 300 college scholarships in the last six years.
 
In 2007, Neil joined GCF's Community Investment Committee. Following last year's redesign of the grant process, a new committee structure enabled the Foundation to cast a wider net for volunteers, recruiting a larger group of people that reflect the diversity of the region.
 
"GCF is a good example of an organization that five years ago may not have had Hispanics on its radar screen," Neil said. "I think it is really beginning to look to what the future is like with Hispanics and how we can better work as a community."
Neil may be a citizen of the world, but it's Cincinnati that has given him his identity.
 
"You can say I'm an American, but I could say, 'I'm Mexican, I'm British, I'm sort of Canadian,"' he explained. "Over time in Cincinnati, I've been able to say, 'this is who I am, living in America, but yet I can still reach into my Latino roots.' I love the Latino people and the warmth, the emotion and passion that they bring to life. I'm proud to be a Latino, proud to help my community in whatever way I can to help it grow and prosper and be well-received by the community at large."