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JobsOhio Chief Urges Valley to ‘Think Different’
BOARDMAN, Ohio – As Mark Kvamme ponders the opportunities facing the Mahoning Valley and the state of Ohio, he thinks back to a conversation he had with the late Steve Jobs.
Back in 1997, after Jobs had returned to Apple, the then-foundering company he cofounded in the 1970s, he called Kvamme, who had been doing a lot of work with him, late one night and read him an advertisement he thought could help move the company forward.
Kvamme told Jobs the ad was “just phenomenal.” Coming out two weeks later, the ad, “Think Different,” featured a series of great entrepreneurs and thinkers, with the message that people who are crazy enough to believe they can change the world “are the ones who do.” That ad campaign helped launch the resurgence of Apple – maker of the ubiquitous iPhone, iPad and iPod – which went from near-bankruptcy to becoming one of the most valuable companies in the world.
Apple's resurgence reminded Kvamme, today the interim chief investment officer and president of JobsOhio, of what's happening in the Valley, he said.
“The opportunities being created by the shale and reinventing this place, the opportunities are tremendous,” he told the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber at its annual meeting Thursday, where he was the keynote speaker.
“But we can’t squander them," he cautioned. "We’ve got to figure out where we want to go. We need to think different. We can’t think like we’ve thought in the past.”
Kvamme said he sees parallels between what is happening today and what took place a century ago in Ohio, when it was the “supply chain for the Industrial Revolution.” The state benefited from abundant low-cost energy and a good location -- even today 70% of the nation’s industrial production is within a day’s truck drive of Ohio, he said.
In addition to being in an ideal position to capitalize on the emerging oil and gas industry, the Valley and Ohio have the opportunity to benefit from reshoring, as companies return to the United States because labor costs here are now lower than overseas logistics costs.
“I fundamentally believe the next 20 years for Ohio is going to bring growth you haven’t seen since the turn of the last century. But we have to do it intelligently, we have to do it economically and we have to make sure that we keep this generation in this state,” Kvamme said.
One third of Ohio’s college and university graduates leave the state, he noted. "The only way to keep them here is by having a diverse economy that utilizes all these different resources. We’ve got to figure out how we can take this wonderful resource we have in the ground and convert that into whole new industries," he said.
Some of the opportunities for new business development could come from a recently announced project about 40 miles to the east, across the Ohio-Pennsylvania line, the $3.2 billion Shell Chemical LP "cracker" plant in Beaver County. “The capabilities coming out of that cracker -- the ethane and the propane and all of those things -- will totally revolutionize the petrochemical business here,” Kvamme predicted. “We need to invent new companies and new technologies around there. We need to help those entrepreneurs coming out of those universities.”
As the head of JobsOhio -- the public-private entity charged with promoting economic development in the state, Kvamme also stressed the need for developing a workforce of both professionals and the skilled trades, as well as enhanced collaboration among public and private partners.
Meeting with reporters following the event, he said Ohio competed for the Shell plant but the company's decision turned on the fact it owns “hundreds of thousands of acres in the Pennsylvania area” and the costs of putting a pipeline from those fields to an Ohio site was more costly. “But you guys are going to benefit enormously,” he said. “It’s going to create a whole petrochemical boom.” Many of the chemicals that will be produced “don’t travel well” so plants are going to need to be built in the vicinity of the Shell cracker plant.
Collaboration was the theme at the chamber celebration, held at Mr. Anthony’s Banquet Center. A video showcasing development highlights of what was described as a “breakthrough year” for the Valley promoted the message, “It’s all about us.”
The chamber’s president and CEO, Tom Humphries, pointed out success doesn't come from any one individual, any one organization such as the chamber or any one company, but instead from a collaborative community effort. “We’re talking about projects that we touched but a lot of people touched those projects,” he said.
Humphries offered the example of Exterran Energy Solutions’ recent groundbreaking on its $13.2 million production facility in Youngstown. JobsOhio referred the company’s inquiry to Team NEO, through which the chamber received the lead. Exterran, which also was looking in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, appeared to have settled on a location in North Jackson when soil testing eliminated that site. The chamber turned to the city of Youngstown, which was able to make available land in the Salt Springs Industrial Park where Exal Corp. had been planning to expand.
“Together, we have been able as a community to make things happen,” Humphries said. That includes completing 20 economic development projects in 2011, amounting to more than $208 million in investment, the creation of 833 jobs and retention of another 1,048 jobs.
The opportunities presented by shale development -- reasons for Exterran’s decision to locate here as well as V&M Star’s $650 million expansion and other projects -- are “real,” as also evidenced by Chesapeake Energy’s $900 million gas processing and fractionation plants planned for Columbiana and Harrison counties, Humphries said.
“It’s an unbelievable opportunity,” he observed. “But it doesn’t happen unless we all work together.”
The luncheon meeting provided the chamber the opportunity to recognize several individuals for their contributions to the Valley. The William G. Lyden Spirit of the Valley Award was presented to Dr. Rashid Abdu, who spearheaded the effort to raise funds and develop the Joanie Abdu Comprehensive Breast Care Center at St. Elizabeth Health Center, Youngstown, which opened last year.
The Don Cagigas Spirit of the Chamber Award was presented to Richard Dearing and Rebecca Wall, president and vice president, of Dearing Compressor & Pump Co., Boardman, which has experienced growth by being one of the early local companies to capitalize on shale development.
The Chairwoman’s Political Achievement Award was presented to Patrick J. Ungaro, Liberty Township administrator. The chamber pointed to Ungaro’s efforts while serving as mayor of the city of Youngstown to attract and retain businesses such as the development of several city industrial parks at old steel sites, and his administration’s attraction of North Star Steel to U.S. Steel's former Brier Hill mill, which today is owned by V&M.
“He really had a vision early on when the economic opportunities in the Valley were so slim,” said Bonnie Deutsch Burdman, chamber chairwoman. “When you think about where we are versus where we were back then when he first took over as mayor, he’s had such a tremendous footprint.”
Copyright 2012 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.