Lt. Governor Lee Fisher’s career has spanned the private, public, and nonprofit sectors. In addition to serving as Lieutenant Governor, Lee served as the Director of the Ohio Department of Development for the first two years of the Strickland-Fisher administration, and continues to help lead the state’s efforts to retain, attract, and create jobs to grow Ohio’s economy.
While leading the state’s economic development efforts as Director of the Department of Development, Site Selection magazine awarded its prestigious Governor's Cup to Ohio in 2007 and 2008. Site Selection also recognized Ohio with the 2008 Competitiveness Award, recognizing the Ohio Department of Development, under Lee’s leadership, as the top economic development agency in the country for business expansion.
Lee has more than 17 years of public service, serving as Ohio Attorney General, State Senator and State Representative. Lt. Governor Fisher also has worked as a private attorney, public company board director, and as a law clerk for the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Prior to becoming Lieutenant Governor and State Development Director, Lt. Governor Fisher served as the President and CEO of the Center for Families and Children in Cleveland for 7 years. In that position, Lee received the “Nonprofit Executive of the Year Award,” and the “Visionary Innovation in Business Award” from Smart Business Magazine for his innovative and entrepreneurial leadership of the Center for Families and Children.
As a freshman legislator 28 years ago, Lee was voted by his legislative colleagues and the Statehouse Press Corps as Ohio’s “Outstanding Freshman Legislator,” in a survey by Columbus Monthly Magazine. As a state legislator, Lee authored more than 10 Ohio laws, including the Missing Children Law; the Hate Crime Law; the Crime Victims Assistance Law; the Hospice Licensure Law; and the Child Safety Seat Law.
As Attorney General, Lee created the award-winning Operation Crackdown program, shutting down hundreds of dangerous drug houses throughout Ohio. Lee also established the first-ever statewide law enforcement conference, which is now an annual tradition in Ohio’s law enforcement community. He was well known in the business community for his “Early Warning System,” a program that allowed businesses the opportunity to resolve issues without the threat of litigation.
Lt. Governor Fisher was a Chase Public Leadership Fellow at Harvard University’s Program for Senior Executives in State and Local government, is a graduate of Harvard University’s Program on Negotiation, the Center for Creative Leadership’s program, “Leadership at the Peak”, and Case Weatherhead School of Management’s Professional Fellows Program. He was also a Case Presidential Fellow and taught undergraduate seminars in leadership and collaboration.
Raised in the Cleveland area, Lt. Governor Fisher graduated from Oberlin College, and earned both his law degree and his master’s degree of nonprofit organization from Case Western Reserve University. Lee is married to Peggy Zone Fisher, the President and CEO of the Diversity Center of Northeast Ohio. They have a son, Jason, who is a recent graduate of Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Public Communications, and a daughter, Jessica, who will be a freshman in college starting this coming fall.
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