Greg Fischer

Gregory Edward Fischer (born January 14, 1958) is an American businessman and entrepreneur who served as the second mayor of Louisville Metro from 2011 to 2023.

Fischer attended Trinity High School in the city and graduated in 1976.

He has since been inducted as a member of the school's hall of fame.

After high school, Fischer attended Vanderbilt University, where he majored in economics, graduating in 1980.

To help pay for his education, Fischer worked summers as a crane operator on the fishing docks of Kodiak, Alaska, unloading salmon boats.

After graduation, Fischer traveled solo around the world for a year, spending the bulk of his trip in Asia, before returning to Louisville.

He is married to Alexandra Gerassimides.

Fischer co-founded SerVend International with his father, George, and brother, Mark.

At age 25, he co-invented the SerVend combination ice and beverage dispenser (patent number 4,641,763).

Over the course of the Fischer's involvement with SerVend, it grew into a global manufacturing business employing over 300 people.

In 1990, Fischer, along with his father and brother, Mark, was named a winner of an award sponsored by Inc. magazine, Ernst & Young, Merrill Lynch and Business First.

As Kentucky and Southern Indiana's Regional Entrepreneurs of the Year in the manufacturing division for their work with SerVend, they were among the finalists for Inc.'s U.S. Entrepreneur of the Year award.

The Manitowoc Company purchased SerVend in 1997 for $78 million.

Fischer held chapter offices, including chapter chair, in the Young Presidents' Organization Bluegrass chapter in 1997 and 1998.

In 1998, SerVend was one of three U.S. small businesses to be honored with a site visit by the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award examiners.

Also in 1998, Flomatic International, SerVend's valve manufacturing division, received the Oregon Quality Award.

The Rochester Institute of Technology and USA Today gave SerVend a Quality Cup Award in the small business category in 1999.

Fischer has been a guest lecturer at MIT and the University of Louisville, and was also an executive in residence at Indiana University Southeast in 1999 and 2000.

He has served as a past board member of Crane House, an Asian cultural institute in Louisville, and Greater Louisville Inc.

In 2000, Fischer co-founded bCatalyst, a business accelerator that evolved into a mergers and acquisitions advisory firm.

As past chairman of the Kentucky Science Center in 2001 and 2002, Fischer helped raise over $20 million to modernize the museum and create interactive children's programs.

He has also endowed scholarships at Trinity High School and the University of Louisville.

There, he led the YPO-funded construction of a Habitat for Humanity home and also created a community partnership with Louisville's Center for Interfaith Relations in 2003, resulting in bringing talent such as Robert McNamara to Louisville for community learning.

In 2006, Fischer received the Catholic Schools Distinguished Alumni Award from the Archdiocese of Louisville.

In 2007, Fischer was awarded the first-ever Bluegrass YPO "Best of the Best" award for community contribution in 2007 for lifelong community service.

Fischer ran in the Kentucky Democratic primary for the United States Senate in 2008, finishing second with 34% of the vote.

Fischer was one of seven candidates in the 2008 Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate in Kentucky.

In November 2010, he was elected mayor of Louisville in a tight race against Metro Council member Hal Heiner.

In 2010, Louisville-based Hilliard Lyons acquired bCatalyst.

Fischer was an investor and board member with MedVenture Technology.

MedVenture, in Jeffersonville, Indiana, is an engineering outsourcer and early stage manufacturer on non-invasive medical devices for companies such as Johnson & Johnson, Boston Scientific, and Medtronic.

Until 2011, Fischer was part owner of Dant Clayton Corporation, a sports stadium design, manufacturing, and construction company with prominent sports-related projects around the U.S. In addition to his other ventures, he now serves as founder and chairman of Iceberg Ventures, a private investment firm in Louisville.

He was reelected in 2014 and 2018, defeating Republican Metro Council member Angela Leet 61% to 37% to win a third term.

Due to term limits, Fischer was ineligible to run for reelection as mayor in 2022.

Under Fischer's leadership as mayor, Louisville Metro gained 80,000 new jobs and 3,000 new businesses.

In a 2016 Politico survey, he was recognized as the most innovative mayor in the U.S. In 2013, Governing magazine named Fischer its Public Official of the Year.

The city has also attracted $24 billion in capital investment since the Great Recession, including a renovated and expanded convention center, dozens of new hotels and multiple tourist attractions centered around bourbon.

Fischer was born in Louisville to Mary Lee and George Fischer, graduates of Loretto and Flaget High School in Louisville, respectively, and has four siblings.

George was the CEO of MetriData Computing Inc. and Secretary of the Cabinet of Kentucky under Governor John Y. Brown Jr.

In 2019, he was elected vice president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, and in 2020, he served as its president.