G. Jeffrey Berding (born February 8, 1967) is an American sports executive and politician. He serves as co-

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

FC Cincinnati Football Club Cincinnati is an American professional soccer club based in Cincinnati. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference. The team was first announced on August 12, 2015 as a United Soccer Leag ...

, a professional soccer team he co-founded in 2015. He is also a Democratic politician, having served on the

Cincinnati City Council The Cincinnati City Council is the lawmaking body of Cincinnati, Ohio. The nine-member city council is elected at-large in a single election in which each voter chooses nine candidates from the field. The nine top vote-getters win seats on the co ...

from 2005 to 2011. From 1996 to 2015, he worked as an executive for the

Cincinnati Bengals The Cincinnati Bengals are a professional American football team based in Cincinnati. The Bengals compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC North, North division. The team plays its h ...

. Berding is currently serving as a board member of the Cincinnati Art Museum, St. Xavier High School, and Xavier University. He most recently served as board chair of Visit Cincy.

Early life

Jeff Berding grew up in the Westwood neighborhood of

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

, with nine siblings. Berding became interested in sports at an early age and played basketball, baseball, and soccer in school. He graduated from St. Xavier High School in Cincinnati in 1985 and attended

Miami University Miami University (informally Miami of Ohio or simply Miami) is a public university, public research university in Oxford, Ohio, United States. Founded in 1809, it is the second-oldest List of colleges and universities in Ohio, university in Ohi ...

. He received his MBA from Xavier University.

Sports career

Cincinnati Bengals (1996–2015)

Berding was an executive with the

for 19 years, starting in 1996 after working on a

sales tax A sales tax is a tax paid to a governing body for the sales of certain goods and services. Usually laws allow the seller to collect funds for the tax from the consumer at the point of purchase. When a tax on goods or services is paid to a govern ...

initiative that would fund construction of

Paul Brown Stadium Paycor Stadium, previously known as Paul Brown Stadium, is an outdoor football stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio. It is the home venue of the Cincinnati Bengals of the National Football League (NFL) and opened on August 19, 2000. Originally named aft ...

and

Great American Ball Park Great American Ball Park is a baseball stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. It is the ballpark of Major League Baseball's Cincinnati Reds, and opened on March 31, 2003, replacing Cinergy Field (formerly Riverfront Stadium), the Reds' fo ...

. He left his position as Director of Sales & Public Affairs in July 2015 to found the new soccer club

FC Cincinnati (2015–present)

In August 2015, news broke of the formation of a

United Soccer League The United Soccer League (USL) is an organizer of various professional and amateur soccer leagues in the United States league system. It currently organizes its Championship, League One, and League Two for men, its Super League and W Leag ...

franchise team to be located in Cincinnati and begin play in spring 2016, with Jeff Berding as president and general manager. Upon launching,

was quickly noted for its unusually high attendance, frequently outdrawing

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...

matches and breaking league records. In October 2017, Berding spoke at a Hamilton County Commissioners public hearing on major projects to advocate for public funding to build a new stadium for FC Cincinnati to play in, should the club's bid to join

as an

expansion team An expansion team is a new team in a sports league, usually from a city that has not hosted a team in that league before, formed with the intention of satisfying the demand for a local team from a population in a new area. Sporting leagues also ...

succeed.

was officially granted a Major League Soccer franchise on May 29, 2018, to begin play in 2019. Berding retained his positions as president and general manager through the transition from USL to MLS. However, on May 30, 2019, FC Cincinnati announced they had hired Gerard Nijkamp to take over Berding's general manager responsibilities. Berding said Nijkamp was hired for his lifelong soccer expertise which Berding lacked. Berding remained the club's president and shifted his work focus to the business and branding side of the club. In January 2022, he was promoted to co-chief executive officer of the club, serving alongside club owner

Carl Lindner III Carl Henry Lindner III is an American businessman from Cincinnati, Ohio. He has served as the co-chief executive officer of American Financial Group since January 2005. He has also acted as chief executive officer and majority owner of FC Cincinn ...

Political career

Berding was elected to a two-year term on the Cincinnati City Council in 2005 in his first campaign for political office. He previously worked for Senator

John Glenn John Herschel Glenn Jr. (July 18, 1921 – December 8, 2016) was an American Marine Corps aviator, astronaut, businessman, and politician. He was the third American in space and the first to orbit the Earth, circling it three times in 1 ...

and on other political campaigns. In the 2005 election, Berding raised the most money of all the candidates in the race. Although he is a Democrat, the council seats are nonpartisan. He served as Chair of the Rules and Government Operations Committee, Vice-chair of the Finance Committee, and was a member of the Law and Public Safety Committee and the Economic Development Committee. In 2009, the local Democratic Party withdrew its endorsement of Berding. In January 2011, Berding announced that he would soon resign from his council position, citing a desire to focus on his position with the

. He stayed on the council for two more months before officially resigning in March.

Honors

In September 2016, the Ohio Valley Chapter of the

National Multiple Sclerosis Society The National Multiple Sclerosis Society (NMSS) is an American nonprofit organization founded in 1946. It is an organization dedicated to supporting individuals affected by multiple sclerosis (MS) and funding research to find a cure for the diseas ...

named Jeff Berding that year's recipient of the Silver Hope Award. In his State of the City speech in October 2016, Cincinnati mayor

John Cranley John Joseph Cranley (born February 28, 1974) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 69th Mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio from 2013 to 2022. A member of the Democratic Party, he was a member of the Cincinnati City Council and a partner ...

named Jeff Berding and

as the shared holders of the Cincinnatian of the Year award for their work managing FC Cincinnati.

Personal life

Jeff Berding has three children – Allie, Jack, and Grace. He married Lindsay Bumbaugh in 2009.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Berding, Jeff Living people Ohio Democrats Sportspeople from Cincinnati Politicians from Cincinnati Cincinnati City Council members St. Xavier High School (Ohio) alumni FC Cincinnati FC Cincinnati owners Major League Soccer owners Miami University alumni Cincinnati Bengals executives American chief executives of professional sports organizations USL Championship executives 1967 births