June 23, 2015: David Ginn, President and CEO of the Charleston Regional Development Alliance (CRDA) spoke to our club on June 23. David is a native of Atlanta and has a degree in economics and international business from the University of Mississippi. He also studied at the London School of Economics. David serves on the Trident Technical College Foundation Board, is a member of the Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors and lives in Mount Pleasant with his wife and 2 children. He is also a member of the Historic Rotary Club of Charleston.
The CRDA represents Charleston, Berkeley and Dorchester Counties. David was named President in 2003 and as such is one of the very first people contacted for companies looking to locate in the region.
The past, present and future of our market.
David began by recounting headlines in 1993 when the Navy base closed-“Scuttled” was the headline, “Double hit closes Charleston Yard, Base”. He described the powerful fear that compelled the region to work together to get through that event. The Palmetto Commerce Park in the mid 1990’s was 1000 acres with nothing but a road that the public and private sector had built. There was not one Class A industrial park in the region.
For effect he showed an image of the Charleston Airport in 1930 but in 1985 local leaders did not envision needing the land that surrounded the airport but controlled 1300 acres that has allowed Boeing to happen. An image of the now expansive Palmetto Commerce Park shows in one park what has happened throughout the region.
Fear was a powerful motivator to work together as a strategy. The CRDA began with a focus on manufacturing jobs in 1995. It then focused on more jobs; in 2000, better paying jobs and in 2010 began to target industries for the region.
Moving to the present he presented Volvo, Daimler and Boeing as indicators of the regions success. Boeing, for example is 5 years old and employs 8000 people. They have announced Centers of Excellence for Engineering, Information Technology and Jet Propulsion.
We will leverage those game changing industries (Volvo, Daimler, Boeing) for future growth.
The Charleston Region is the 76th largest metro area out of 380 but is performing in the top 20 according to Brookings Institute, Forbes and others. We will need to sustain the workforce pipeline and transportation infrastructure to maintain growth. 25,000 jobs will be created over the next 5 years. We will need to understand what companies need, what the Universities and Technical Colleges are producing and find where there are gaps.
Shortages are expected in key fields such as Information Technology and Engineering. The CRDA will start by recruiting for the IT industry. 400 communities currently recruit so we are late to the game. The attractiveness of our region can allow us to leap to the top however.
The war of the future is for Talent he concluded.
— Don Baus, Keyway Committee