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April 30, 2010 June Indy Leadership Trip To Focus On Successes In Economic Development, Education Reform, Intergovernmental Cooperation And Regional Sustainability: In what has become a tradition in the St. Louis area since the inaugural Leadership Trip to Cleveland back in 1996, regional leaders are joining forces for a "best practices" examination of Indianapolis on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, June 13th, 14th and 15th for the Annual RCGA Annual Leadership Trip. Led this year by Graybar Electric Chairman, President & CEO, and RCGA Chairman Bob Reynolds, the Leadership Exchange to Indianapolis will provide a unique and in-depth opportunity for our diverse regional leadership to focus on a number of issues important to our own metropolitan area, strengthen existing relationships and forge several new ones.
One of Indianapolis' most successful efforts in the 1970s was Unigov, the landmark consolidation of city and county governments. It was Unigov that has served as a model to other municipalities of how efficient consolidated local government can be organized and operated. The result of those efforts was a proposal to consolidate city and county governments in Marion County. Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels recently commissioned an even largergovernmental consolidation effort, co-chaired by Randall Shepard, Chief Justice of the Indiana Supreme Court and former Indianapolis Mayor Bill Hudnut's Deputy Mayor John Krauss, who is now the Director of the Indiana University Public Policy Institute. Bill Hudnut will moderate a special panel discussion on this issue consisting of John Krauss, Chief Justice Randall Shepard, and Dr. Ned Lamkin, former House Majority Leader of the Indiana House. Governor Daniels, former Director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) under President George H.W. Bush, has been invited to participate in the Leadership Exchange program, along with Pacers Sports President James Morris; Central Indiana Corporate Partnership CEO Mark Miles; Indy Partnership President Ron Gifford; Indiana Sports Corp. President Susan Williams; Greater Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce CEO Roland Dorson; Indianapolis Economic Development CEO Scott Miller; and Indianapolis Airport Authority CEO John Clark, to name a few. We will also tour Lucas Oil Stadium, which was the site of the NCAA Final Four earlier this month. This promises to be an outstanding Trip and we certainly hope you can join us. The Leadership Trip registration fee of $2,750 covers each delegate's participation, including single occupancy accommodations at the award winning Conrad Hotel and all meals (starting Sunday with lunch and ending Tuesday with lunch), as well as local transportation and transfers and charter motor coach to and from Indianapolis. For reservations, please call RCGA Vice President for Membership Services Colin Stahlhut today at 314.444.1145, or email him at cstahlhut@stlrcga.org. We look forward to your joining us! April 28, 2010 "Big Idea China Project" Momentum Continues, Chinese Biotech Delegation Visiting Region This Week: Following the recent successful mission to China led by Mayor Francis Slay and 48 Group Chairman Stephen Perry to meet with Chinese air carriers and officials from the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China (CAAC), along with business and chamber of commerce and economic development representatives in China, yet another delegation of Chinese business leaders will be visiting St. Louis this week. This delegation is a group of some 35 to 40 biotech firms and investors visiting several U.S. biotech centers under the auspices of the China Investment Promotion Agency (CIPA). The delegation will visit St. Louis, San Francisco, and the Research Triangle in North Carolina, in advance of their attending the annual international BIO meeting, to be held this year in Chicago. The RCGA is hosting the CIPA delegation this Wednesday evening until Saturday afternoon, in cooperation with the Midwest China Hub Commission. While in St. Louis, the delegation will be meeting with regional plant and life sciences leaders, as well as State and local elected leaders, and touring the region's plant and life sciences institutions --- such as Washington University, the St. Louis Coalition for Plant & Life Sciences, the BioGenerator, the Missouri Botanical Garden, CORTEX, the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, BRDG Park, and the Center for Emerging Technologies, as well as being hosted by Express Scripts, Sigma Aldrich, BJC Healthcare, Mayor Francis Slay, Hub Commission Chairman Mike Jones, Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder and Gov. Jay Nixon. The delegation will also be introduced to American baseball at Busch Stadium and will tour the Arch before departing St. Louis on Saturday.
The CIPA delegation follows another recent Chinese business-to-business visit, this from Weihai, China by China's largest medical device manufacturers, hosted by the RCGA several weeks ago upon the return of the Mayor's delegation from China in late March. These missions represent the business and commercial center component of the "St. Louis Big Idea," complementing and supporting the proposed Central USA Cargo Hub component of the overall project. The recent China mission concluded agreements with 4 Chinese airlines to join in the feasibility analysis that Lambert-St. Louis International Airport and the technical consultant team for the Midwest China Hub Commission have underway for establishing the cargo hub.
St. Louis "Just Doing It" In The New York Times: The New York Times put a positive spotlight on St. Louis this past weekend withFriday's front page article on immigrant entrepreneurs who are contributing to the region's innovation-driven start ups and to its organic job growth. Then, in his Sunday Times column, Tom Friedman penned a dateline St. Louis entire column on our region's latest new economy entrepreneurial success, a St. Louis-based firm called EndoStim a tenant at the Center for Emerging Technologies incubator, being led by successful former Stereotaxis (itself a successful CET graduate now HQd in CORTEX) founding CEO Bevil Hogg, and whose early stage capital is coming from St. Louis' Oakwood Medical Investors. Friday's article http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/16/us/16skilled.html?pagewanted=1&hp by Julia Preston highlights the reprise of St. Louis' history of immigrant entrepreneurs, these from China and Bosnia, noting, "more than half of the working immigrants in this metropolitan area [St. Louis] hold higher-paying white-collar jobs - as professionals, technicians or administrators - rather than lower-paying blue-collar and service jobs."
Preston also notes, "Cities with thriving immigrant populations - with high-earning and lower-wage workers - tended to be those that prospered the most." Friedman's Sunday column, entitled "Just Doing It," http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/18/opinion/18friedman.html traces the entrepreneurial history of a fascinating early stage St. Louis-based medical device company called EndoStim.
The genesis of the Friedman column is also interesting. If ever there was an example of the power of informal networks, this is one. Two weeks ago, at an informal Maryville University reception prior to Friedman's presentation at the St. Louis Speaker Series, venture capitalist Dan Burkhardt shared with me a fascinating story about an emerging entrepreneurial firm in St. Louis in which he and his colleagues at Oakwood are providing the early stage capital. Having just met our guest of honor, I took Dan over to meet Tom, and encouraged him to share the story of this "world is flat" company --- based in St. Louis, with links in India, Chile, Seattle and Australia. Friedman was ecstatic, asked Dan for his business card, and indicated that he wanted to do a column on the subject. Later at dinner that evening, Friedman noted that he gets most of his ideas for columns from informal discussions as he travels --- and that he had unearthed two columns at the evening's reception. We now know what one of them was; I'll wait to see if the second one appears. As Tom Friedman says, we're "just doing it."
Economic Development Win: RCGA, Missouri Partnership, DED, City Of St. Peters And Economic Development Center Of St. Charles County Team Up In Recruiting Alpla To St. Louis Region: Alpla Inc., a privately held $3 billion manufacturer of plastic packaging solutions, has purchased an 83,485 square-foot industrial property at 9 Cermak Blvd. in St. Peters.
Austrian-based Alpla is a worldwide leading company in the plastics processing industry, operating 128 manufacturing facilities in 37 countries with approximately 10,000 employees. The company manufactures bottles, caps and tubes for a variety of consumer products. Alpla plans to initially hire some 100 employees and invest $12 to $16 million in the facility. Within 10 years, the company expects growth to reach 150 employees and increase investment to $25 million. The RCGA has been working with Alpla since January, 2010 in conjunction with its economic development partners, the Missouri Partnership, the Missouri Department of Economic Development, the City of St. Peters and the Economic Development Center of St. Charles County. After completing a property search in the Missouri and Illinois portions of Greater St. Louis, the company selected the St. Peters location because of the building's ability to be easily adapted and to accommodate future expansion. Alpla is currently recruiting workers and plans to begin operations this June. The company selected Greater St. Louis for its newest manufacturing plant to service current and new customers located here in the region. "Alpla is excited to locate in the St. Louis region to better serve one of our largest global customers," said Ken Sigman, Director of Sales and Marketing for Alpla. "This will not only enhance our ability of exceeding customer expectations, but will also provide Alpla a great platform to offer value to additional customers in this region." St. Peters Mayor Len Pagano, noted, "We're very excited about Alpla moving to St. Peters and the quality jobs they are bringing to our region. We are also proud to welcome them as the newest addition to our strong, growing business community. St. Peters works to bring new, quality jobs and businesses to our area and we are equally committed to keeping the businesses here strong with a great future." Gov. Jay Nixon, said, "As Missouri's economy continues its recovery, it's gratifying that an international company like Alpla has chosen Missouri as a location for its expansion, investing in our state and tapping into the best workforce anywhere. It is clear that state economic incentives like the Quality Jobs program, with its proven track record of providing a tangible return on investment to taxpayers, remain a valuable tool to help draw such companies to our state while moving Missouri's economy forward." The RCGA was delighted to work on this project with the company and our economic development partners in St. Charles County and St. Peters. The St. Louis region has many of the necessary components for creating and sustaining a strong business environment. We have shown that the region's strong business climate and its position in the U.S., embodied in our region's brand, "Perfectly Centered, Remarkably Connected", makes us a natural location for manufacturing operations. "The St. Louis community was very helpful in making our selection. The educational system, skilled workforce and infrastructure will allow us to have a long business relationship with our employees and our customers," added Michael Koenig, Director of Finance for Alpla. Alpla was founded in Hard, Austria in 1955 by Alwin and Helmuth Lehner. |
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