The Council of the Great Lakes Region provides a binational, multi-sector forum for exchange and collaboration on the region’s key risks and opportunities. Beginning with conversations about the Region’s most critical issues, the Council encourages those with common interests to drive commitment and action through dialogue groups, research, advocacy, and programs.
To create the most prosperous, innovative, sustainable, livable, and welcoming region in the world.
CGLR will lead a new era of economic growth, environmental protection, and individual well-being by connecting diverse interests and sectors across the binational Great Lakes economic region to one another, discovering solutions to complex policy problems, and influencing decisions that affect the region’s long-term competitiveness and sustainability.
Following the Brookings Institute’s extensive work on the future of the Great Lakes economy, in 2011, over 250 leaders – government, business, labor, non-profit, and academic – came together in Detroit, Michigan and Windsor, Ontario for the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Region Summit jointly convened by Brookings and the University of Toronto.
To fill this void and to implement the Vital Commons Agenda, also referred to as the “Detroit-Windsor Consensus”, the Council of the Great Lakes Region was launched in 2013 in Cleveland, Ohio, with the support of then United States Ambassador to Canada, David Jacobson, and Canada’s Ambassador to the United States, Gary Doer.
Gaps in regional leadership, knowledge sharing, and advocacy needed to be filled, but that no one organization existed to bring these interrelated binational interests together and speak to the region’s priorities.
Many policy areas were identified where stronger collaboration and voice were needed when it comes to building the region’s future economy, preserving a healthy ecosystem, and deepening cross-border and cross-sector collaboration and partnerships.
Working with many of the region’s organizations and diverse interests, the Council seeks to inform state, provincial and federal decision-makers in both countries about the region’s long-term economic, social, and environmental goals. It also connects private, public, and nonprofit actors across the region, cultivating a strong regional voice to promote shared interests and solutions to the region’s common challenges.
The Council of the Great Lakes Region provides a binational, multi-sector forum for exchange and collaboration on the region’s key risks and opportunities. Learn more about how we lead change.
Distinguished advocates for the Council of the Great Lakes Region
U.S. Ambassador
U.S. Ambassador
U.S. Ambassador
Canadian Ambassador
Canadian Ambassador
Canadian Ambassador
Trade Minister
Québec Premier
Governors of the Council of the Great Lakes Region
Advancing the mission of the Council of the Great Lakes Region
President & CEO
Mark Fisher was appointed Chief Executive Officer of the Council of the Great Lakes by the Council’s board in 2014. Mark has 13 years of experience in policy-making, strategic business planning, corporate communications, stakeholder engagement, public advocacy, and issues management and experience in international affairs, with a focus on advancing the U.S.-Canada relationship.
Senior Director, Business Engagement
Laura Asiala is the Senior Director of Business Engagement for the Council for the Great Lakes Region. Passionate about the power of business to help solve the world’s most intransigent problems, she has extensive experience leading efforts to attract more participation of companies to contribute to global, sustainable development, through their people and their work.
The Council of the Great Lakes Region is a binational network of organizations comprised of: (1) Council of the Great Lakes Region, an Ohio nonprofit corporation exempt from federal income tax under section 501(a) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (as amended, the “Code”) and classified as a trade association described in Code section 501(c)(6) (“CGLR USA”); (2) CGLR Foundation, an Ohio nonprofit corporation exempt from federal income tax under section 501(a) of the Code and classified as a public charity described in Code section 501(c)(3) (“CGLR Foundation”); and the Council of the Great Lakes Region, a Canadian non-profit corporation (“CGLR Canada”).
We depend on the support of individual members, government grants, private foundations, and corporate sponsorship to make our work possible. We welcome the support of the diverse institutions and individuals who share our vision for the future of the binational Great Lakes megaregion.
