Industry Leaders Circle

The Industry Leaders Circle (ILC) is the business bureau of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative. Launched in 2025, the ILC operates on the belief that the best results grow out of robust dialogue, collaboration, and engagement between local government and the private sector. The ILC is the natural place for any business that shares the Cities Initiative’s values of responsible freshwater use, community resilience, and economic transformation, and that wants to work with us to implement our vision of the Fresh Coast Economic Corridor.

Led by representatives from diverse sectors including engineering, manufacturing, and water technology, the ILC fosters long-term, sustained engagement between businesses and Cities Initiative member communities. Through quarterly meetings, in-person roundtables, deliverable reports, and other activities, the ILC provides an open, accessible forum for mayors and businesspeople to listen, learn, and provide one another with crucial feedback, insight, and support. By fulfilling twin functions as a brain trust and advisory council for the implementation of the Cities Initiative’s Economic Transformation Action Plan, the members of the Industry Leaders Circle play an active, valuable role in shaping the future of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River Region, home to over 40 million people, the world’s third-largest economy, and 21% of the world’s surface fresh water.

Join the Industry Leaders Circle

When you join the Industry Leaders Circle, you signal yourself and your brand as leaders in the fields of corporate responsibility, economic development, and freshwater stewardship to a multinational audience of 425+ mayors, executives, and other elected leaders. Membership comes at a price point of $10,000 per year (denominated in the currency of the country in which your business is registered), and comes with the following benefits over the course of a twelve-month period:

Invitation to send participant(s) to all four (4) regular, quarterly ILC meetings held over the course of year
Opportunity to submit content to the ILC’s Annual Report, highlighting a successful public-private partnership
Eligibility to collaborate with Cities Initiative staff on the development of a bespoke, targeted program designed to engage Cities Initiative member communities in depth
Visual recognition on the Cities Initiative website with approved promotional language
Visual and written recognition in the Cities Initiative’s newsletter Making Waves, which reaches thousands of stakeholders and elected officials every month across the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence
Visual and verbal recognition at the opening and closing sessions of the Cities Initiative’s Annual Conference

Additionally, ILC member companies receive two (2) complimentary registrations to the Cities Initiative’s Annual Conference, one (1) complimentary registration to every regional conference held over the membership period (2-3 per year), and are invited to participate in various activities connected with the Cities Initiative’s annual Great Lakes Day delegation to Washington, D.C. (held each year in early March), including exclusive roundtable events and discussions.

It would be our pleasure to welcome you and your business to the Industry Leaders Circle. To learn more about the ILC and the opportunities that come with membership, please contact Jack Knizhnik, Development Manager at the Cities Initiative, at jknizhnik@glslcities.org.