This was Jeff Berding’s “The Candidate” moment.

At the end of that 1972 film, Robert Redford’s character, an unlikely U.S. Senate candidate who wins, asks, “What do we do now?”

Berding had similar thoughts as a newly elected vice president of residence life for Associated Student Government his sophomore year at Miami University. Berding didn’t consider himself a leader up to that point in his life. He confided in Leslie Haxby-McNeill, then Miami’s assistant director of residence life, that he was “scared to death” facing this new role as part of student government.

Haxby-McNeill’s reassuring response? “We will walk this path together.”

With support like that, Berding found his leadership footing at Miami. He spent more than 19 years with the Cincinnati Bengals, where he led the sales and public affairs efforts for the NFL franchise. In 2015, he co-founded FC Cincinnati, the professional soccer team that has grown into a community institution valued at over $900 million.

Berding returns to Miami on May 17 to deliver the address for the university’s 186th spring commencement. Despite graduating cum laude with a degree in Political Science, this will be Berding’s first time participating in a Miami commencement. He missed his own ceremony as he had begun his career in Columbus.

“Leslie’s embrace of me was extraordinary and really set me up to find my voice and to be comfortable and confident in continually evolving as a leader,” said Berding, now President and co-CEO of FC Cincinnati.

“By the time I walked out of Miami, I had been president of the Ohio’s Student Association and had testified in the Senate and Ohio House, and I had spent a summer working in the Governor’s Washington, D.C. office. When I showed up at Miami, I couldn’t have imagined any of those things. At a certain point, I got the peace of mind and confidence that I had ambition inside me and it was OK to put my head down and go for it.”

A lifetime of leadership followed, most of it spent in his hometown. Berding served three at-large terms on the Cincinnati City Council; serves as president of the FC Cincinnati Foundation and co-chair of the Cincinnati Regional Business Committee; and founded Build Cincinnati, a group of young professionals who crafted and led the charter amendment for evolving Cincinnati’s city government into a stronger mayoral system.

Berding also was honored as a “40 Under 40” by the Cincinnati Business Courier in 2006, received the EY Regional Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2019, and was named the Business Courier’s CEO of the Year in 2024.

“We are thrilled to have Jeff Berding as our 2025 spring commencement speaker,” Miami President Gregory Crawford said. “Jeff is a fifth-generation Cincinnatian who has worked tirelessly to support his community. FC Cincinnati is a part of the fabric of the city, and Jeff helped build a strong and loyal fanbase in a short time. I am eager for our graduates to hear from Jeff about his experiences.”

Berding was the first in his Berding family to graduate from college. A beautiful campus that was just the right size and price drew him to Oxford.

“Miami was clearly everything I wanted,” Berding said.

A ‘long way from Westwood’

Working as a resident assistant at Collins Hall was a “transformative experience,” one that led Berding to an interest in student government and eventually even re-starting the Ohio Student Association.

Also a member of Miami’s Phi Gamma Delta fraternity chapter as a student, Berding was on the front porch of the FIJI house – located across from Skipper’s, a particularly favorite spot of his – when a Miami alumnus stopped by. It was Mark Brender ’71, at the time a broadcast journalist, who was speaking on campus about how satellites would soon transform the landscape of news media.

Their conversation turned to Berding’s upcoming trip to Moscow with a group led by faculty member Paul Mitchell, who had a 35-year career teaching Russian language, literature, and cinema at Miami. Brender would also be in Moscow at the time, he said, covering the 1988 summit between U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, then leader of the Soviet Union.

Berding remembered the rush he felt when he exited the Moscow subway system and saw Red Square, the Kremlin, and Lenin’s Mausoleum. He and Brender did meet up, along with Marshall Goldman, who was part of Harvard University’s Russian Research Center, for a private tour of Moscow. Later, Berding watched as Peter Jennings reported live from Moscow for ABC News.

“Moscow was such a long way from Westwood,” Berding said, referencing his Cincinnati neighborhood. “It was just such an amazing, life-altering experience.

“Miami was very rich in experiences. I am a very proud alum. I am father to a newer alum, my daughter Allie (Class of 2020). I have tried to stay connected. We walk out of this place, and hopefully all students feel gratitude for what an amazing gift they’ve been provided in terms of education and relationships.”

‘He’s always been Jeff’

Many of those relationships have stood the test of time. Berding met two of his best friends while working as an RA, and he and Haxby-McNeill remain close.

Given all Berding has accomplished, he still manages to keep everything in perspective, Haxby-McNeill said.

“He’s always remained the person I first knew,” said Haxby-McNeill, now Miami’s assistant director of student wellness. “He’s always been Jeff.

“I really hope students go to commencement and hear his address. He comes from a place where he’s walked in their shoes. He’s had a lot of life experiences. That sign you see on people’s houses, ‘To think that in such a place, I led such a life,’ Jeff really is the embodiment of that.”

Berding has given one commencement address before – speaking to the Class of 2023 at Mount St. Joseph University in Cincinnati.

During that same week, he also traveled to attend the Loyola University Chicago commencement as two of his children graduated from the school. It made for a full weekend of ceremonies for someone who was unable to attend his own graduation or his daughter's Miami graduation given the pandemic and resulting virtual ceremony.

“He was too busy going off to his next adventure,” Haxby-McNeill said. “Jeff does not let grass grow under his feet.”

But he is cultivating a growing passion for Cincinnati’s professional soccer franchise. FC Cincinnati is in its seventh year as part of Major League Soccer, the highest level in the U.S. soccer system. In 2023, the club won the MLS Supporters’ Shield, given to the team with the league’s best regular-season record.

Growing up, Berding’s first passion was the Cincinnati Reds. He always thought Cincinnati was the best city in the world because it had the best baseball team. His three children were soccer fans, and Berding wanted to make sure they could love their city the same way he did.

Co-founding FC Cincinnati with Carl H. Lindner III, the pair had a goal to represent Cincinnati to the world – and to bring the world to Cincinnati.

“I am 100% convinced it will be a really important asset for this city because of the global connectivity,” Berding said. “We’re not the biggest sports team in town, but we try to be a model for the right way to be connected to your community, the right way to be connected with your fans, and the right way to have ambition for winning. All of those things are very important values that are being made here in the moment. All of those things will be part of a homegrown tradition that I think will last for many generations to come, and I am blessed and proud to be a founder of our club.”

Established in 1809, Miami University is located in Oxford, Ohio, with regional campuses in Hamilton and Middletown, a learning center in West Chester, and a European study center in Luxembourg. Interested in learning more about Miami University's spring commencement ceremony? Visit the website for more information.