Lee Crume

Lee Crume is President & CEO of BE NKY Growth Partnership (BE NKY), the economic development company that works to attract, retain, and grow businesses and the economy in Boone, Campbell, and Kenton counties.

In 2024, BE NKY won 18 projects, announcing 1,467 new jobs and $499M in capital investment, with the advanced manufacturing sector leading each of these metrics. Lee and his team have been successful in exceeding the company’s targets for capital investment in 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024.

Throughout 2024, Lee led BE NKY’s Community Competitive Initiative to identify risks and challenges to Northern Kentucky’s prosperity, align stakeholders on desired outcomes, and identify actions to achieve those outcomes. BE NKY leaders and board members met with more than 100 business executives at over 40 local companies to ascertain their opinion on the local economy and the outlook for their business.

The Community Competitive Initiative expanded on the work of Build + Elevate NKY, a five-year investor campaign, that encompasses four initiatives focused on data, workforce, business attraction, and the Northern Kentucky Port Authority. Accomplishments include the launch of a community data dashboard – the NKY Atlas, LinkedIn digital marketing business attraction campaigns, meetings with potential clients at international tradeshows, and construction of the OneNKY Center and SparkHaus by the NKY Port, a managed entity of BE NKY.

Since Lee was appointed CEO in April 2019, he has led the growth of the BE NKY team, with two positions added in 2024, and the number of employees growing to 15. The company was named a Best Places to Work finalist by the Cincinnati Business Courier in 2023 and 2021.

Lee graduated as a member of the Leadership Kentucky Class of 2023 and was named a NewsMaker by the Northern Kentucky Tribune in 2021. Lee’s business development experience in the private sector includes leading domestic and global business development organizations, multi-million-dollar pursuits, and developing the marketing for, and rolling out of, new products and services. His clients included: Fortune 10 to 1,000 organizations, Big 4 and international consulting firms, and various public and private organizations.

The economic development industry recognized Lee’s leadership with:

• 2023 Top 50 North America Economic Developer by Consultant Connect
• 2018 Top 50 North America Economic Developer by Consultant Connect
• 2017 Top 50 North America Economic Developer by Consultant Connect

Lee is a member of the Board of Directors for the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, Greater Cincinnati Foreign Trade Zone, Inc., Northern Kentucky Port Authority, and Covington Life Sciences Partners. He has a Master of Arts degree in Communication and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Corporate and Organizational Communication from Western Kentucky University.

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