Chamber efforts recognized at Aerospace Forum

Efforts by the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber to recruit businesses and help ensure that companies are able to retain a well-trained workforce once they get here were recognized during the recent Oklahoma Aerospace Forum.

“I’ll give the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber a whole lot of credit for this,” said Lt Gov. Matt Pinnell. “They recognized that we needed a whole lot of software engineers and mechanical engineers in the state of Oklahoma. They came to us with an idea to make sure that we put a tax credit in place to lure those engineers to Oklahoma.”

Pinnell led a panel discussion regarding what is and isn’t working when it comes to Oklahoma’s aerospace brand.
With a $44 billion economic impact, aerospace is the second-largest – and fastest-growing - sector of the state economy. Aerospace firms locally produce $4.9 billion in goods and services and employ more than 36,000 workers.

“We can get them here, we pass the eye test,” said Pinnell. “We believe we – state government – have a role in making sure that we have events that give business and prospective employees a reason to come to Oklahoma. We’ll prove that this is the best place to start a business or work for any of our companies.”

Many panelists, throughout the day, cited the importance of available workforce and employee retention as a major factor in their decision to locate their business in Oklahoma.

“Partnerships with groups like the Greater OKC Chamber are vital,” said Jason Thomas of Boeing. “They just did the Elevate Conference, a full day of professional development. You get people to Oklahoma and we can send you there (to Elevate) and not send you all over the country for professional development and that’s cost-effective for the company.”

Thomas also touted the chamber-driven Find Your OKC events.

“Your employees and potential employees, people who have moved here, can experience and learn about the things that they can see and do in OKC,” he said. “It provides a networking opportunity and helps to make them a part of the Oklahoma family.”

“There are some great things going on in the state of Oklahoma,” said Jamey Jacobs, director of the Unmanned Systems Research institute. “Across the country, a lot of folks look to Oklahoma as a leader in the unmanned aircraft industry.”

That is in no small part due to efforts to recruit companies like Kratos Unmanned Systems and Valkyrie Systems Aerospace.

“We talked to several different states, we talked to several different cities, and I have to tell you, there was no welcome that was half of the welcome that we were getting from Oklahoma, the support we were getting from the political arena, the Chamber, the local community and from the people that we talked to that live and work in Oklahoma City,” said Steve Fendley with Kratos. “It became a very, very easy decision for us. Everything that was told to us, everything that was promised to us, has come true in spades and in many cases has exceeded that. The focus on aerospace in Oklahoma and Oklahoma City and the commitment that the whole community has to that sector to companies coming in make it a true partnership with Oklahoma and Oklahoma City.”

“We were looking for quality employees,” said Valkyrie’s Glenn Dawson. “We need pilots, we need assemblers, we need people who actually understand aerospace. As we start to build out this manpower we had to find a place that had good connectivity to quality of education and life. We want our employees to be happy. We want them to enjoy coming to work every day. There is a great quality of life in Oklahoma City. The community is the main reason the Valyrie Aerospace located in Oklahoma City.”

“Aviation, aerospace and defense is such a huge part of our economy,” said Gov. Kevin Stitt. “Definitely the fastest-growing sector of our economy.”

Stitt related how the CEO of Boeing was pleased with the decision to locate their engineering group to OKC. Boeing’s chief executive called it one of the best decisions he’s ever made and the facility has grown from 50 engineers when they first came to Oklahoma City to now employing more than 3500.

“We’re so proud that Boeing has found success here and I’m not surprised. Oklahoma’s work force is second to none,” said Stitt.

The governor assured those in attendance he understands the importance of the aerospace sector and that the state will continue to assist in continuing to recruit companies to the state.

This article originally appeared in the November 2019 issue of The POINT!