2025 Community Leaders of the Year: Tony Gallo

His grandfather and two brothers came to Lorain in 1903 to work on the railroad at the steel mill. His parents lived about six blocks from the Gallo homestead. And for the past 22 years, Tony Gallo has worked at the Lorain County Chamber of Commerce, the last 12 as its CEO.

And that gives Gallo — a Lorain Admiral King graduate who’s earned the nickname “Mr. Lorain County” — a unique perspective when it comes to promoting a unique location.

With cities like Lorain and Elyria, lakefront communities like Avon Lake and Vermilion, bedroom communities like Avon and North Ridgeville and swaths of farmland, the county’s a cross-section of the state of Ohio. And unlike a lot of counties, Lorain County has a local media system including two daily newspapers and a host of radio stations -— giving him opportunities to get his message out that other chambers in Northeast Ohio don’t have.

“We’re able to promote ourselves in a different way,” he says. “Lorain County’s never viewed itself as an extension of Cuyahoga County.”

Gallo graduated with a degree in marketing & advertising from Bowling Green State University in 1986. He had visions of working for an ad agency in Cleveland. Instead, he took a job at Wilmot, a local printing company, and transitioned to the chamber, initially as director of business development and then, since 2012, as CEO. He sees his job as a simple one: bringing people together to provide a conducive environment for growth and success.

“There was a time when company presidents decided where they wanted to open their business,” he says. “Now they look and say, ‘Where is the workforce?’ For the entire time I’ve been here, it’s been, ‘How do we make Lorain County desirable for people to come open businesses, expand their businesses and grow here?’”

Gallo notes that 99% of the chamber’s 700 members are small businesses — most with 20-50 employees, well below the federal guideline, which considers any business with fewer than 500 employees a small business. He sees them as heroes in the community.

“Without people investing in opening a business, in running a business, in buying a business, communities don’t grow and succeed,” he says. “Small business owners are sponsoring the Little League teams and the high school athletics. They’re investing in the community.”

Gallo’s plan is to retire from the chamber at year’s end, but he still plans to be involved somehow. He can’t imagine otherwise.

“I’ve done this for 22 years, and I wake up every day thinking I have the best job in the world,” he says. “I get to work with people who are investing in their community. At the end of the day, I’m trying to make Lorain County better and, by default, Northeast Ohio.”  

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