Ten People Who Have Made a Difference

1. Texas Gov. Rick Perry

Texas' economy had been in a death dive. For example, Texas' SB&D 100 points (our ranking of the biggest corporate and industrial deals announced in the South each year - see www.sb-d.com), dropped from an all-time high of 1,320 points in 1997 to a meager 355 points in calendar year 2002. To give you an idea of how significant of a drop that is, it amounts to 100 new corporate deals with an average employment of 800 jobs or more, or about 80,000 new jobs created, or, in the case of Texas, not created.

But in the last couple of years, Texas Gov. Rick Perry has placed job generation and economic development at the top of his agenda. While 2004 SB&D 100 figures won't be available until the spring edition (late May), it is clear that Texas has stopped a six-year slide in points in that annual ranking. In 2003, Texas saw Toyota pick San Antonio for a large pickup truck assembly plant and Texas Instruments announced it is building the first new semiconductor plant in the South since 1996 in Dallas.

2. North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley

Like Perry, NC's Easley has had a tough go of it since 2001. North Carolina has seen manufacturing jobs vaporize like no other state in the South, other than Texas, of course. But Easley was a fighter in 2003. He personally sent nine letters and e-mails to Pres. George W. Bush in 2003 asking that federal trade policies be revisited to stop the exportation of jobs.

But Easley wasn't always on the defensive last year. He also spearheaded the movement of tobacco settlement money to the right places for a state such as the Tar Heel State. The largest state-funded biotech initiative in the South (other than Scripps, which we're not sure can be described as "state funded") got its start in North Carolina in 2003 and Easley was the prime mover in the deal.

3. Joe Hollingsworth and Trisha Ostrowski

OK, go ahead and accuse us of being a homer with these two, but Joe and Trisha did make a difference in the South's economy in 2003 and will for years to come. Last year, Joe Hollingsworth, an entrepreneur from the Knoxville area, wrote a book titled The Southern Advantage (www.theSouthernAdvantage.com) with Trisha Ostrowski's help. Trisha is the managing editor of Southern Business & Development. No other publication (other than this magazine, of course), examines every advantage you can think of when it comes to operating a business in the American South. The Southern Advantage is also the most updated publication currently available that includes a historical look at how this region, so dirt-poor just fifty years ago, has become one of the world's largest and most vibrant economies. Joe and Trisha wrote the book and if you are looking to the South for a foothold for your company, you should buy it.

4. Virginia Gov. Mark Warner

Here's another governor who is spending tobacco settlement money wisely. Warner is doing a great job at steering deals, when he can, to his rural areas (with the assistance of part of the settlement money) and has done an equally good job at turning deals in Virginia's major markets. It's interesting that former Gov. George Allen, now U.S. Sen. George Allen (Va.), established a serious economic development agenda in the Old Dominion almost a decade ago and every governor in the state since wants to replicate it. And they've done a pretty good job at it too, especially Warner.

5. Dennis Cuneo and Emil Hassen

There are numerous people who can be credited with taking the Southern Auto Corridor forward to greater heights, but no two people deserve more credit in the last year than Dennis Cuneo, Sr. V.P., Toyota Motor Manufacturing North America and Emil Hassen, V.P. Manufacturing, Nissan North America. Both Japanese automakers have spent hundreds of millions of dollars in the Southern Auto Corridor in the last few years and they employ tens of thousands in the South. Cuneo and Hassen have been at the forefront of those investments and hires in the South over the last several years.

6. Florida Gov. Jeb Bush

Talk about sticking your neck out. Jeb Bush just about single handedly turned the potentially massive Scripps Research Institute deal in Palm Beach County. No, the Scripps site search wasn't your typical site search. This was a federal deal and Jeb Bush's brother is, well, you know. But there is a lot on the line with the big biotech deal in South Florida. Promised are up to 40,000 new jobs in the Sunshine State as a result of Scripps locating their first East Coast institute in western Palm Beach County. That's a tall order for an industry that's just now finding its stride. But the order must be filled because over $500 million in incentives are on the table for Scripps.

7. Jim Pickens and Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee

Speaking of finding its stride, Toyota's decision to choose San Antonio in 2003 put Arkansas on the international site search map, especially for those in the automotive industry. Why? Toyota's second choice was Marion, Ark. Even though Arkansas lost out on the Toyota plant, Arkansas turned its largest automotive deals in history in 2003 in the form of two large suppliers. More is expected from this state in the near future. And it was former Arkansas Department of Economic Development director Jim Pickens and current Gov. Mike Huckabee who made it happen.

8. Michael Szymanczyk, Bill Foley and Others

Michael Szymanczyk is CEO of Philip Morris USA. Bill Foley is CEO of Fidelity National. Both companies are Fortune 500 members and both relocated their headquarters from outside the South to the South in 2003. Philip Morris moved from New York City to Richmond and Fidelity moved from Santa Barbara, Calif. to Jacksonville. Other major corporations relocated to the South in the last year as well, including Louisiana Pacific, Newell Rubbermaid, DHL, Asurion and Rayovac. But it was these two men who started the trend.

9. Missouri Gov. Bob Holden

Missouri isn't your typical Southern state. In fact, many in Missouri don't consider themselves "Southerners." But the Show Me State is a part of our coverage area so they are, indeed, "Southern," albeit possibly half-breed in nature. At any rate, Gov. Bob Holden is a person who made a difference last year. No Southern governor has been more active in business retention than Holden. And Missouri was rewarded in 2003 for his efforts. Missouri lost less manufacturing jobs than any other Southern state last year.

10. Presidential Candidate and U.S. Senator John Edwards (North Carolina)

You may know of Sen. Edwards only through television. But the people of North Carolina know Edwards well. We touched on North Carolina earlier when we profiled Gov. Mike Easley. The Tar Heel State has become the poster child of lost jobs in this country. And Edwards, along with Gov. Easley, have taken the fight to Washington like no two politicians in the U.S. Here's an example. On Wednesday, February 11, Sen. Edwards pressed President Bush to revoke a White House report that said sending American jobs overseas will somehow help the economy in the United States and is "a good thing." Edwards's response was, "What planet do they live on?"