Retired businessman Roger Daniel was appointed earlier this month as the chairman of the Downtown Middletown Inc. board of directors.

The board also welcomed five new board members and two ex officio members from the city of Middletown and Cincinnati State Middletown.

“The buck stops with the board. The more the volunteers are involved, the more successful you’ll be,” said DMI Executive Director Patrick Kay. “One thing you want to have in a strong chair is someone who does almost as much work as the executive director and who meets with the executive director on a regular basis — and the more that happens the more successful the group’s going to be.”

Downtown Middletown Inc., which was born from a public-private partnership through the city of Middletown, is a not-for-profit champion of the city’s downtown. The 11-member board is a group of volunteers who have a vested interest in downtown Middletown.

“The idea is to support growth downtown,” said Daniel, who lives in the South Main Historic District. “People who have invested in downtown knows what it takes to grow downtown.”

The board’s new members are TV Middletown Executive Director Ty Thomas, Middletown YMCA Executive Director Angela Howard, Forest Hills Country Club & Sportsplex President Roland Lutz, Art Avenue Custom Framing owner Phillip Harrison and attorney Joe Mulligan.

Mulligan, who is a first-term city council member, does not represent the city on the board. Ex officio board member Matt Eisenbraun, the city’s economic development program manager, represents Middletown. Cincinnati State Middletown Assistant Director Judy Bober represents the college.

Daniel, who joined the board about 18 months ago, became involved because he wanted to help downtown grow.

“We’re downtown all the time,” Daniel said about he and his wife. “We would like to have restaurants to go to, entertainment to go to. I just wanted to help support the downtown be more vibrant, have a better quality of life attractions for downtown.”

The group will focus on projects in 2013 that involve partnerships with Cincinnati State Middletown, which Daniel said “is the reason many people decided to pull the trigger investing in downtown,” and the Sorg Opera Revitalization Group.