Ten People Who Made a Difference

While we try our best to change up the categories for your reading enjoyment in our annual Ten Top 10s section, we always include the "Ten People Who Made a Difference" category. After all, each year there are hundreds of people that should be recognized for their contributions to successful economic development in the South. Here are a few Southerners who deserve recognition for their contributions to economic development in the South over the last year.

Steve Dykes
Charleston County, S.C. Director of Economic Development

In the fall 2009 issue of Southern Business & Development, we named South Carolina Department of Commerce's Jack Ellenberg as our 2010 "Person of the Year" for his work in helping secure the Boeing project in North Charleston, S.C. There are several other people who deserve credit for helping land what will most likely be the deal of the year in the South for 2009 (to be decided by SB&D in June). Nobody worked harder on the Boeing project than Steve Dykes, Charleston County's Director of Economic Development. Dykes is the point person at the local level on the Boeing project. A good portion of the Boeing incentive package (about $55 million) is being funded by Charleston County and it was Dykes who was sitting at the negotiating table alongside state officials and Boeing officials for months.

Christine Gregoire
Governor of the State of Washington

We have only given one other governor outside of the South recognition in our annual "Ten People Who Made a Difference" feature and that was California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger back in 2005 for not stemming the tide of relocating California-based companies to the South that year. This year, we are giving recognition to Washington State Gov. Christine Gregoire for the same reason: She bungled the chances for Washington State to get the second 787 Dreamliner assembly plant so badly that she deserves to be acknowledged.

The reasons behind Boeing's move to South Carolina, according to Washington Gov. Gregoire, were "about negotiations with labor." In a public statement regarding the Boeing decision, Gov. Gregoire said, "I'm disappointed, I'm angry, I hurt for the workers and I think the company made the wrong decision. But, I wasn't at the table." Why Gov. Gregoire wasn't "at the table" for such an important decision by the state's largest employer (even larger than Microsoft) is up for speculation. Nonetheless, it probably didn't help matters for Washington State when Gov. Gregoire visited the picket line during the Machinists’ strike against Boeing in the fall of 2008.

Stefan Jacoby
VW Group of America's Chief Executive

Frank Fischer
CEO of Volkswagen's Chattanooga Operations

Jacoby, along with Frank Fischer, the CEO of Volkswagen's Chattanooga operations, are being named as a pair in our annual "Ten People Who Made a Difference" for their work on two of the South's most important projects over the last three years. In September of 2007, it was Jacoby who made the final decision to move Volkswagen of America's headquarters from Auburn Hills, Mich. to Herndon, Va. VW opened its headquarters in Herndon in late 2008. It was also Jacoby and Fischer who swayed other VW officials to pick Chattanooga for the automaker's only U.S. assembly plant. That facility is currently under construction and is expected to be completed next year. Together, the two deals will ultimately result in the hiring of almost 3,000 people in the South and thousands more indirectly.

Aaron Demerson
Executive Director of the Texas Governor's Office of Economic Development and Tourism

The job of running the state office of economic development in a place the size of Texas has got to be daunting. Knowing the history of the old Texas Department of Commerce and prior to its formation in 1987, the Texas Economic Development Commission, it can also be a lonely job. For decades, those two organizations employed more of a "hands off" approach to economic development in the Lone Star State than they did a "hands on" approach. There was little if any marketing of the state back then and state-based incentives to locating industry weren't vanilla, they were non-existent.

But in 2003, when Toyota came calling the state received a wake-up call. When Toyota pointed out there wasn't a big deal closing fund anywhere to be found in the state, the Texas Enterprise Fund (TEF) was created. Aaron Demerson was the assistant director of Texas Business development at the state economic development agency then and took over as director in 2005. Gov. Rick Perry started the effort to turn Texas' state economic development department into an organization that was instrumental to Texas' success. Demerson, with the leadership of Gov. Perry, engaged local communities and a talented economic development team have furthered that effort into what is now the strongest Texas state economic development organization that we have seen in 20 years or more.

Gary Matthews
Executive Director of the Tishomingo County, Miss. Development Foundation

With a population of about 20,000, the northeast Mississippi county of Tishomingo is tiny, by anyone's standards. But you wouldn't know it with all of the big deals that have picked Tishomingo of late. In 2009, Tishomingo added about 1,000 new jobs in the county, a startling number when you consider the county’s population. That being the case, Tishomingo's performance last year may be the best per capita of any rural county in the South. And the person behind those deals, more than anyone, is Gary Matthews, the executive director of the local economic development group in Tishomingo County. Gary's big catch in 2009 was ATK, which announced an expansion of its plant in Tishomingo County that represents 650 new jobs and a minimum investment of $175 million.

Brad Henry
Governor of the State of Oklahoma

Quietly, for almost eight years, Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry has positioned his state the right way. Currently, Oklahoma sports the lowest unemployment rate of any state in the South. When Gov. Henry came into office in 2003, Oklahoma faced a $700 million budget shortfall and a depleted Rainy Day Fund. Today, like all states, Oklahoma is facing another significant budget crisis. But this time, the Rainy Day Fund is at its constitutional limit for the first time in history. Gov. Henry's primary agenda has been to strengthen public education in the state and he has done that. With an approval rating of about 75 percent, Henry continues to be one of the most popular governors in the U.S.

Lindsey Graham
U.S. Senator - South Carolina

In an age of uncompromising partisan politics, South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham is a breath of fresh air. Graham, a maverick Republican in the mold of John McCain, is usually the first person the Obama administration calls on for advice when dealing with Senate Republicans. Graham has supported more bipartisan legislation than any Senator in Washington and that includes those from the Democratic Party.

Regardless, the primary reason we are naming Sen. Graham as a “person who made a difference” in economic development in the South this year was his critical role in landing the Boeing plant in Charleston County, S.C. During negotiations, Graham was often the go-between connecting South Carolina officials with Boeing officials.

Brad Lacy
President and CEO Conway, Ark. Development Corp.

There are few small communities in the South that have had more success in this recession than Conway, Ark. Conway landed two of the most coveted white collar projects in the region over the last couple of years in Hewlett Packard and Southwestern Energy. Together those projects will employ nearly 2,000 workers and that's in a town of less than 60,000 people.

Like all forward-thinking communities, Conway officials laid the groundwork for success years ago. In 2001, the Conway Development Corporation, headed up by Brad Lacy, began developing The Meadows, the only office and technology park in Arkansas owned by a non-profit economic development corporation. The project took years to develop. Lacy worked with the city of Conway to implement a franchise fee on electricity and dedicate the proceeds to economic development. Those funds were used to put nearly $5 million in infrastructure into the park. Conway was rewarded for its investments in the park with HP’s 1,400-employee project.

Claude Ramsey
Mayor, Hamilton County, Tennessee

Claude Ramsey is in his fourth term as the mayor of Hamilton County, Tenn., which includes the City of Chattanooga. Claude was among the first to make the argument several decades ago that the community of Chattanooga should acquire the former Volunteer Army Ammunition plant from the Department of Defense, budget the money to clean it up and market it as an industrial park. Today, that park, Enterprise South, is the home to a $1 billion Volkswagen plant that is under construction and a new supplier park that will be home to six new VW parts suppliers. Claude has been tireless in his efforts to bring jobs to Chattanooga. Tennessee Congressman Zach Wamp said this recently about Mayor Ramsey: "Claude Ramsey goes about his job quietly and with determination. When it comes to economic development, Claude gets things done."