May 2018 Chairman's Update

May 2018

• Chairman’s Update • Project Updates & Events • Important Dates • Roundtable “Special” Projects Update • New Members • Economic Development Briefs • Recent Events • Treasurer’s Monthly Report • Commerce/Workforce News • Calendar

Chairman’s Update

For the last year, it has been an honor to serve as the Chairman of the Oklahoma Business Roundtable. I am extremely grateful for the excellent work done by our board of directors. They have my special thanks for their commitment to executing the Roundtable’s important mission.

We continue to appreciate our many member companies and organizations all working to help grow the state’s economy. While there are several challenges ahead of us, we do know that Oklahoma must continue to diversify and be marketed nationally and globally through export and foreign direct investment and domestic attraction activities.

We also know that the bulk of Oklahoma’s economic growth comes from industry expansion. One unique project that is helping spur this effort is a special Manufacturing Networking Luncheon series in communities throughout the state. This project helps network regional manufacturers and support partners, allowing companies to sell to each other and combine their efforts in commercializing new products, processes and innova- tions. The collaborative, organized by OCAST, event originated in Broken Arrow and has now been held in Tulsa, Enid, Atoka, Owasso and Oklahoma City. Over 50% of participants reported new business or a lead for future business.

This is just one example of the 17 economic development projects the Roundtable was able to support this past year. Grants awarded by the Roundtable totaled $330,500 and were leveraged by an additional $1.6 million from our partners. They have supported everything from successful trade missions to STEM education efforts to a variety of entrepreneurial activities. I am pleased to say that our efforts continue to directly contribute to enhance workforce development, job creation and economic growth.

In March, we hosted a special business technology briefing featuring Microsoft Special Projects representative, Dr. Chris White. We had a great turnout and learned new aspects about the web, dark web, cloud and artificial intelligence.

New and expanded investment is on the rise with companies such as Alfa Laval (Broken Arrow), Kratos Defense & Security Solutions (OKC), Sofidel (Inola) and Spirit Aerospace (McAlester) making impressive announcements. 1 (continued) Please mark your calendar for our next business meeting on June 13, 4:30-6:00pm, followed by a networking reception, 6:00-7:00pm, at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa. Governor Fallin will join us along with our special guest speaker Pierce Norton, President and CEO of ONE Gas, and the Immediate Past Chairman of the American Gas Association.

Your sustained support of the Roundtable is vital to our state’s economic development efforts. Membership renewals will be sent in June and we are looking forward to your continued participation as we prepare for the next administration.

Thank you for your continued membership and support!

Rob Martinovich, Chairman

Important Dates Annual Membership Meeting Wednesday, June 13, 2018 Southern Hills Country Club, Tulsa 4:30—6:00 p.m. Membership Meeting 6:00—7:00 p.m. Networking Reception Keynote Speaker Pierce H. Norton, II, President & CEO of ONE Gas, Inc. and Immediate Past Chair of the American Gas Association

Remarks Governor Mary Fallin RSVP to [email protected] or 405-235-3787 Membership Meetings October 2, 2018 Oklahoma History Center, Oklahoma City

June 12, 2019 Southern Hills Country Club, Tulsa

New Members

The Roundtable welcomes the following companies as new members:

• Enel Green Power, Oklahoma City, Jeff Riles

• Lopez Foods, Oklahoma City, John Patrick Lopez

• Kratos, Defense & Security Solutions, Oklahoma City, Steve Fendley 2 Recent Events

Roundtable Hosts Top Microsoft Researcher Over 120 Roundtable members and guests attended a special Roundtable Executive Briefing given by Microsoft researcher and Oklahoma native, Dr. Christopher White, on March 7 in Oklahoma City. White discussed his whirlwind career which included work at both the National Security Agency (NSA) and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in Afghanistan. He received the 2016 Presidential Award for Extraordinary Efforts to Combat Trafficking in Persons for his development of Memex, a suite of Internet tools OSU President Burns Hargis, Oklahoma Governor Mary to help local law enforcement agencies extract and visualize information about illicit ac- Fallin, and Dr. Chris White tivities, including human trafficking. He gave an informative view of the state of technology today as it relates to business with emphasis on the many aspects of the web, the dark web and the cloud. He cited significant industry growth trends in artificial intelligence (AL) - which will affect all business and industry. White, an OSU graduate, was introduced by OSU President Burns Hargis.

Chickasaw Nation Governor Bill Anoatubby and Ed Martin attending the Roundtable briefing.

Commerce/Workforce News Selected New Statewide Location/Expansion Announcements Name Location Jobs/Investment Alltran Financial Tulsa 150 jobs Alfa Laval Broken Arrow 100 jobs/$15 million BelGas FM Claremore 50 jobs CACI Oklahoma City 550 jobs Enel Green Power Oklahoma City 120 jobs statewide Google Pryor $600 million expansion (at Google’s 2nd largest data center)

Mito Material Stillwater 200 jobs Sofidel Inola 300 jobs/$360 million Spirit Aerospace McAlester 30 jobs/$20 million TierPoint Tulsa $20 million Additional investments were announced by Koltek Energy, Okmulgee; Valiant Natural Gas, Hughes County; Cardinal Midstream, Grady County; JCJ Architecture, Tulsa and CymStar, Broken Arrow.

Sofidel groundbreaking—Inola 3 Project Updates & Events

Consul General Summit Held The Governor’s International Team hosted the annual 2018 Consul Summit April 2-3 in Oklahoma City. Consul Generals from Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Ireland, Mexico, South Korea, Spain and Switzerland were in attendance. The Consul Generals promote stronger cultural and economic relations between their countries and Oklahoma businesses and communities. While here, the group met with state and local business leaders at a networking reception, business breakfast and official state luncheon hosted by Governor Mary Fallin and the Roundtable. Oklahoma is home to more than 140 foreign-owned companies. Over 48,000 jobs in the state are supported by these businesses.

Lt. Governor Hosts Business Prospects Across State The 32nd Annual Lt. Governor’s Turkey Hunt was held in eight communities across Oklahoma in early April. The event was hosted by Lt. Governor Todd Lamb and the communities of Woodward, Alva, Hugo, Ardmore, Duncan, Elk City, Okemah and Pawnee County. The economic development event targets business executives and site location consultants who have interest in Oklaho- ma as a location for jobs and investment through expansion and new facility location. Over 90 business guests attended.

Site Consultant Brings Location Update to Governor’s Economic Development Marketing Team One of the nation’s top site location consultants visited Oklahoma February 26-27. Mike Mullis of J.M. Mullis, Inc., visited with members of the Governor’s Economic Development Marketing Team (GEDMT) in Tulsa. He outlined several site location trends:

• Manufacturing and distribution projects are averaging $100 million in capital investment per project.

• Projects are being driven by the labor availability in a thirty-minute commute distance from the proposed site. It is extremely important for the economic developer to have control of the sites proposed on RFP’s.

• Streamlined permitting process is important.

• Spec buildings should be 100,000 sq. ft. with the ability to expand in 100,000 sq. ft. increments.

• Workforce and speed to market with the site are driving the majority of site selection decisions.

4 • Product development from the community with respect to sites, training programs and skilled workforce are critical in order to be successful in site selection.

• Incentives are still important to offset costs in the final stages of a workforce attraction or expansion project.

• Economic developers should have 4-5 local company representatives on hand during meetings on site visits to help sell the business case to prospects.

Roundtable “Special” Projects Update

The Roundtable has provided grant funds to help support several important economic development projects throughout the state this fiscal year. Here is an update:

Love’s Cup Collegiate Business Plan Competition The Love’s Cup, Oklahoma’s unique statewide collegiate business plan competition, was held in April. The project simulates the real-world process of researching a market, writing a business plan and making a presentation to potential investors. The program, coordinated by i2E, is supported by signature sponsor, Love’s Corporation, and dozens of other companies and organizations including the Roundtable. The competition is designed to grow more entrepreneurs who will lead future startups that will create jobs and wealth for the state. In its 14-year history, over 2,000 college students have participated and over $2 million in cash, scholarships and fellowships have been awarded. Over 600 innovative plans from 35 campuses statewide have been pro- duced and several have become i2E clients. Through the competition, we are proving that Oklahoma has the resources and commitment to grow more entrepreneurs who will lead future startups that will create jobs and wealth for the state. Paulsen Scholarship Award Winners—Three $5,000 college scholarships were awarded in the name of for- mer Roundtable President Donald Paulsen. The winners were:

Mackenzie Archer Rabecca Wiseman Patrick Arney East Central University Oklahoma State University OSU-OKC

Click here for a complete list of 2018 winners. Several Roundtable members participated in the judging. They included Bud Miles, Brenda Jones Barwick, Michael Davis, Roger Mashore, Doug Sorocco and Chris Scully.

Brenda Roger Bud Doug Chris Michael 5 FIRST Robotics Competition Promotes STEM Now in its 10th year, the annual Oklahoma FIRST Regional is a competition in which teams from across the country (and even the world!) participate in robotics matches which pair professionals and young people to solve an engineering design problem and compete. FIRST (For the Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is a non-profit organization founded in 1989 by Dean Kamen. Kamen is an inventor, entrepreneur, and a strong promoter of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). He is best known as the inventor of the Segway. Kamen noticed that the number of American students in the science and technology field was widely decreasing and he wanted to inspire young adults to join the vast STEM fields. The Oklahoma Regional had over 60 teams compete. Oklahoma Regional winning teams included The Chickasaw Nation STEM Academy (Ada) and Tulsa Memorial High School.

Thousands Participate in National Research Conference at UCO in Edmond Thousands of undergraduate students from across the globe converged on Edmond, OK, April 4-7, for the National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR). UCO President Don Betz welcomed the more than 4,200 students researchers—809 from Oklahoma—and their faculty mentors representing 460 colleges and universities from all 50 states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and 18 countries. The students convene with faculty mentors and sponsors to present their research and crea- tive activities. In addition to the display and discussion of their work, participants benefitted from nationally recognized plenary speakers, a graduate school and professional fair, and excursions throughout Oklahoma City and Central Oklahoma. Conference leadership speakers included: NBA great, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar; Claudia San Pedro of Sonic Corporation; and Ramu Damodaran of the United Nations. Dr. Betz said, “Most of our guests have never visited Oklahoma. We be- lieve this will not be the last time they are here.” He added, “Human talent, homegrown here in Oklahoma and those who join us from elsewhere, will always be our most sustainable asset.”

BioScience Networking Event A first-ever BioScience Networking event was held April 26th in Tulsa. The project included dozens of local researchers and industry professionals and focused on regional collaboration, technology application, identification of key challenges and peer-to peer interaction. Cordinated by OCAST, major participants included OU, OSU, University of Tulsa, Tulsa Tech, ORU, NSU, i2E, OKBio and the Tulsa Area Regional Bioscience Consortium. The Roundtable served as a sponsor for the event.

6 Economic Development Briefs

• Site Selection Group says the shortage of labor will continue to be the No. 1 factor creating the big- gest challenges for both employers and economic development organizations. The shortage primar- ily occurs in high-demand, skilled occupations such as software developers, software engineers, technical support, skilled manufacturing, welders and skilled construction trades in metro areas with the most labor competition and lack of workforce development initiatives.

• Fortune Magazine’s annual list of the “100 Best Companies To Work For” included American Fidelity (59th) and Devon Energy (92nd).

• The Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation (OMRF) has just entered its first-ever collaborative license agreement in China. The agreement is for the development and marketing of drugs to treat hemophilia and traumatic bleeding, based on technologies developed at OMRF.

• The Noble Research Institute, Ardmore, has announced the creation of the Noble Land Stewardship Program. The program to provides producers (land stewards) with information to help them make timely decisions within current enterprises and receive performance based economic benefit for measured ecological outcomes.

• Cherokee Nation Technology Solutions is ranked 11th on Washington Technology’s “2017 List of Largest 25 8(a) Contractors.”

• Tulsa (7th) and Oklahoma City (10th) were ranked among the top ten cities for starting a new small business according to Lending Tree.

• SmartAsset has identified the best U.S. cities for first-time homebuyers. The survey (of cities with at least 300,000 residents) concluded that first-time buyers would prefer to purchase homes in sta- ble housing markets with affordable housing and low market volatility and availability of conven- tional mortgage loans.

Treasurer’s Monthly Report

Click here to read State Treasurer, Ken Miller’s latest Economic Report.

7 Calendar

May 3, 2018 Manufacturers Networking Event Oklahoma City (Business Expansion) May 9-11, 2018 Governor’s Economic Development Team Atlanta (Business Recruitment) May 5-9, 2018 IAMC (International Asset Management Conference) Savannah (Business Recruitment) May 7-10, 2018 AWEA (Wind power) Conference Chicago June 7, 2018 Manufacturers Networking Event Tulsa (Business Expansion) June 13, 2018 Oklahoma Business Roundtable Annual Membership Meeting Southern Hills Country Club, Tulsa, 4:30 p.m. June 20-22, 2018 Select USA Summit

July 16-22, 2018 Farnborough Air Show with Commerce/Corporate Partners UK (Business Expansion and Recruitment) Washington DC (International Business Recruitment) October 2, 2018 Oklahoma Business Roundtable Fall Meeting Oklahoma History Center, Chesapeake Room, Oklahoma City, 4:30 p.m. June 12, 2019 Oklahoma Business Roundtable Annual Membership Meeting Southern Hills Country Club, Tulsa, 4:30 p.m.

405-235-3787 ● www.okbusinessroundtable.org ● [email protected] 8