Lessons learned from AU lead Beres to job as Clinton County Port Authority director

A constant of human history, no matter the technological and moral advances, is that a decision in the real world is never made where you have all the information you need.

This insight has been incredibly helpful to Alex Beres, a 2006 Ashland University graduate.

“A great lesson from some of the courses I had at Ashland was that never was there a leader who acted with perfect knowledge,” Beres said. “I try not to approach any subject matter or decision to be made as if I already know the answer. I’m always seeking more information, reading, asking questions and trying to understand as best as I possibly can.”

Beres has used this approach throughout his career as an infrastructure and economic development public policy professional, including his most recent job as executive director of the Clinton County Port Authority in Wilmington, Ohio, which he started at the beginning of this year.

In seeking more information and trying to understand his new job better, he’s relying on his staff of six and the additional 4,500-plus who work at Wilmington Air Park, which is owned by the Port Authority and is the largest air cargo shipping hub in Ohio.

The Port Authority also is the lead economic development agency for all of Clinton County, which has a population of about 42,000.

“I’ve been blessed to inherit a great team at the Port Authority, as well as hire some amazing new colleagues,” Beres said. “One thing you learn whether you’re ready to or not as a manager is that your output and effectiveness really is just the output and effectiveness of your team.

“Things are hard to do and get done,” Beres added. “You simply have to surround yourself with the good and the excellent to make good and excellent things happen.”

That’s what Beres wanted to do after graduating from Norwalk High School. He wanted to learn about the greatest thinkers and statesman throughout history by surrounding himself with some of the best instructors for that, so he chose AU.

“I just remember reading or being told that at Ashland you could take an entire semester course just on Lincoln or on Churchill,” Beres said. “I was hooked and wanted to go.

“I absolutely believe in Ashland being a place that teaches you how to think not what to think,” he added.

Some of the instructors Beres said he’s glad he surrounded himself with at AU included:

• The late John Lewis, his adviser: “He had a brilliant mind and his joy for art and philosophy was inspiring.”
• Rafe Major: “He believed in me more than I probably did at the time. He asked me directly, as well as our class, several questions that I’m still trying to answer to this day. I hope to still be thinking about those questions the rest of my life.”
• C. Bradley Thompson: “His course on the American Revolution was intense in all the best ways. He paced the course to cover the history of the revolution, as well as the entirety of Locke’s Second Treatise in a semester and it worked.”
• Chris Burkett: “His ability to facilitate discussion on nuanced American political topics encouraged me to get out of my shell and work on my arguments.”
• Jeff Sikkenga: “His courses on the Supreme Court made it so I don’t fear reading Court opinions and dissents.”
• The late Peter Schramm: “His seminar on Lincoln I desperately wish I had put more effort towards at the time as it was incredible. It was the shining seminar on the hill that made me come to Ashland and it didn’t disappoint other than my own efforts at the time. I still think about that class.”

His experiences at Ashland University encouraged him to earn a Master of Arts degree in government through Johns Hopkins University and become a policy fellow at the University of Bath in the United Kingdom.

After working in the Columbus area in economic development and public finance, Beres went to work for the U.S. Department of Transportation in the Washington, D.C., area for a couple of years before returning to Ohio for his current position.

“When we found out my wife was pregnant, we decided we’d rather start a family back in Ohio than D.C., and I started the process of looking for positions ‘back home,’ ” Beres said. “This job is really a culmination of my ‘non-career’ career. I’ve held various leadership positions in economic and infrastructure development, and this position tied all of these different experiences into one role.”

While he’s trying to learn as much as he can about his new job and Clinton County, Beres also is still working on getting his arms around and appreciating the human depth of the ideas and teachings of the world’s greatest thinkers and statesmen.

“That desire to understand has really never left me,” he said, “and then was only enhanced by going to Ashland.”