The Regional Growth Partnership’s campaign to drive new investment opportunities for Italian businesses in Northwest Ohio continues to pay dividends.
Serving the 17-county Northwest Ohio region, the RGP leads international development efforts to promote foreign direct investment into the Toledo region and the export of goods out and around the world.
Paul Zito, vice president of international development at the Regional Growth Partnership, said the Italian market continues growing as a prime target, leading the RGP to drive more strategic initiatives toward such opportunities.
“We continue to do more and more in Italy, enhancing relationships and building opportunities back here for potential investment,” Zito said, noting that more than 6,000 people are employed by Italian companies operating in Northwest Ohio.
The Toledo region’s recent engagement with the Italian Football League has greatly boosted awareness and engagement for much of the area with the European country. Toledo business leaders played an instrumental role in attracting the Italian Bowl championship game to The Glass Bowl in 2023, and plans are in place to once again host the Italian title game back here June 28, 2025.
Along with the national and global exposure generated from the game itself, the Italian Bowl has also allowed the RGP to promote business investment opportunities to Italian companies. Built around the Italian championship game the last several years, both Toledo and some Italian regions have hosted business forums for companies to connect and discuss areas of interest. The RGP has presented to more than 100 business representatives through the business forums in 2024 and 2025 in Rome, Florence, Bologna and Varese. This has resulted in five Italian companies considering the Northwest Ohio region as a potential location for U.S. operations.
“This never would have happened without our involvement in the Italian Bowl,” said Zito, who departed again to Italy for a business forum in early May.
Beyond the Italian Bowl and business forums, Zito also highlighted other initiatives driving the RGP’s Italian strategy. One example is the relationship he’s developed with Wall Street English, the largest provider in the world of teaching English as a second language. Among its services, Wall Street English offers educational language courses to corporations and their employees. Through Zito’s connection, he’s been able to present to dozens of corporate “students” learning the language, sharing with them business opportunities in Northwest Ohio. He’ll be doing the same on his current trip to Italy where he’ll meet with 30 corporate students.
Overall, the RGP’s international development efforts in 2024 helped in the attraction of 455 new jobs and more than $2.8 billion of investment to Northwest Ohio.