Gregory Edward Fischer[1] (born January 14, 1958) is an American businessman and entrepreneur who served as the second mayor of Louisville Metro from 2011 to 2023.

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

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

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

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 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.

A television advertisement for Fischer released in late March 2010 cited four priorities under his would-be administration: creating jobs, investing in clean energy, making metro government more transparent and building two new bridges over the Ohio River.

This included the creation of the Office for Performance Improvement & Innovation and the implementation of Louiestat,[25] which "brings individual Metro departments before the Mayor and his senior leadership team every six to eight weeks to identify, through consistent metrics tracking and data analysis, what the department (and Metro Government) can do to continually improve the services it delivers to the citizens of Louisville."

Early in his tenure, Fischer convened a committee of residents to identify opportunities in the food and beverage industries, culminating in a 2013 report and the coining of the phrase "bourbonism".

[27] The idea was to leverage the growing popularity of bourbon, which is largely produced in Kentucky, and Louisville's history with the beverage to create new economic opportunities in industries such as dining and tourism.

[29] Along with the redeveloped and expanded downtown convention center, bourbonism has been a factor in multiple new hotels opening in the city, including the Omni Louisville[30] in 2018 and Moxy/Hotel Distil[31] in October 2019.

[32] Among the investments in predominantly African American neighborhoods were the redevelopment of the Beecher Terrace public housing site through a $29.5 million federal grant,[33] a new YMCA[34] at the historic 18th Street and Broadway intersection, and a new indoor track and learning center by the Louisville Urban League with support from the city.

[38] During Fischer's first nine years in office, the local economy added 80,000 jobs, 3,000 new businesses opened,[39] and the net unemployment rate dropped from 10.2% in January 2011 to 3.3% in September 2019.

[43] But during Fischer's tenure, Louisville struggled to catch up to neighboring metropolitan areas in percentage of "high-paying jobs", ranking 9th out of 17 in the region.

[48] Citing his mother as an inspiration,[49] Fischer launched Give A Day[50] in April 2011 to encourage residents to volunteer or otherwise contribute to the community.

[...] Both our human values and the future of our city depend on our ability to directly address the challenges that stop each and every citizen from realizing their potential.

The announcement came hours after a statue in Louisville's Cherokee Park depicting Confederate officer John Breckinridge Castleman was vandalized.

In response to the vandalism, Fischer said, "For many, this statue is a beloved neighborhood landmark, but for others, it's a symbol of a painful, tragic and divisive time in our history—which gets at the complexity of this conversation.

[60] The next January, Fischer announced the launch of Lean Into Louisville, "an unprecedented series of presentations, conversations, activities and art exhibits that will explore and confront the history and legacy of all forms of discrimination and inequality in the city and the country.

[62] Fischer's decision not to arrest the police officers, [citation needed] and the recent murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis led to widespread protests across Louisville.

The law bans "no knock" warrants, a controversial procedure requested by LMPD police that led to the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor.

[65] On September 17, 2020, The Louisville Metro Council approved legislation giving Fischer a list of steps to rebuild trust.

Fischer's administration, in partnership with Metro Council, implemented multiple reforms[66] in 2020 and 2021, including the creation of a Civilian Police Review and Accountability Board;[67] the adoption of the early intervention system of IAPro to track all use-of-force incidents, citizen complaints, internal investigations, and other key factors; and the creation of a pilot program to "deflect"[68] a number of 911 calls to a non-police response "focused on problem-solving, de-escalation and referral to appropriate community services".

Through a spokesman, Fischer said he supported raising the minimum wage at the federal level so it is "uniform nationwide", but did not say what hourly rate he favored.

In response, Fischer and a majority of the Metro Council called on the Kentucky General Assembly to allow the city to set its own minimum wage law.

But the bill also said religious and political student organizations cannot be hindered or discriminated against for how they conduct their internal affairs or select their leaders and members.

[75] On June 26, 2017, Fischer and Lexington Mayor Jim Gray sent the California Attorney General's Office a letter asking that their cities be excluded from the ban.

"[76] A week later, Becerra replied that California could lift the ban only if city officials were able to "make progress with leaders in your state" to repeal or amend the law.