A nonprofit publication of the Kentucky Center for Public Service Journalism

People in News: Square 1 board members; Mando, Defense Lawyer of Year; Kist to Heritage Bank


SQUARE1 has added three new board members, reflecting its enhanced services to startups throughout the region. Startups can now benefit from SQUARE1 services from the time they come up with an idea to validating the idea, development of the product, growth, and innovating each step of the way. Innovation projects have included not only startups but ongoing regional organizations, for- and non-profit, seeking to improve operations and employee engagement.

Stephen Wright

SQUARE1’s high school program, Startup Scholars, also continues to scale expecting more than 400 students to participate thanks to the generous support of community organizations such as the Louis & Louise Nippert Charitable Foundation.

The new board members support this surge include:

Tony Kneis

Stephen A. Wright, a consultant at MCF Advisory in the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky office with over 18 years of experience in serving clients by providing comprehensive financial services; Stephen graduated from Thomas More College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in business with emphasis in finance;

Yvan Demosthenes

Tony Kneis has served as the Northern Kentucky-Cincinnati District Market Manager Vice President of US bank since September 2017. His responsibilities are Retail and Commercial Banking for Boone, Kenton, Campbell and Hamilton counties. In his local markets Tony oversees 17 total locations and over 100 employees; and

Yvan Demosthenes, who has more than 20 years of experience in the sales of technology, application and system software, as well as consulting services and retail. Yvan is a top producing sales executive and has proven results in enterprise software sales and consulting service sales.

Mando named ‘Defense Lawyer of the Year’

Jeffrey C. Mando of Adams, Stepner, Woltermann & Dusing, PLLC has been awarded the “Defense Lawyer of the Year” by the Kentucky Defense Counsel (KDC).

Jeffrey Mando

The Kentucky Defense Counsel is the premiere organization of civil defense attorneys in Kentucky and the state-level affiliate of the national organization, Defense Research Institute. KDC promotes and supports its members through professional education and development, collegiality and diversity to enhance the quality of service its members offer their clients and to ensure access to justice for defendants. It boasts more than 400 members and has been honored by DRI in recent years for the quality of its programs and its publication.

Todd Kist joins Heritage Bank

Heritage Bank has named Todd Kist to head up their Mortgage and Consumer Lending operations. He’ll operate out of the bank’s Dream Street Operations Center in Florence.

Todd Kist

Kist has 20 years of experience in commercial, consumer, and mortgage lending operations in the Greater Cincinnati – Northern Kentucky and Dayton, OH regions. Prior to joining Heritage, he served as Vice President Lending and Chief Compliance Officer and Internal Auditor for Warsaw Bank in Cincinnati.  

A graduate of the University of Cincinnati where he received a bachelor’s degree in Marketing and Real Estate, Kist is active within his community and serves on the board of Loveland Youth Softball.  In his free time, he enjoys spending time with his wife, Jody, and their three children, Owen, Emma and Avery. The family resides in Loveland.


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