Welcome to Forum 360, I'm Sally Henning.

Prosperity may not be the key to happiness, but it sure helps.

Our guest today, Christine Nelson, vice president, Project Management and Insights Strategies for Team NEO is all about prosperity and growth, and she's here today to discuss her passion.

Team NEO's mission to attract, retain and expand business in Northeast Ohio.

Welcome to Forum 360.

Thank you for having me.

Really happy to be here.

- Please would you explain to our audience what your company, Team NEO is all about?

- Yeah so, Team N-E-O or Team NEO, depending on you can say it either way stands for Team Northeast Ohio.

We are a economic development agency.

We're the only one that covers 14 counties across the region that make up Northeast Ohio.

And we help companies stay, grow, and attract new companies to this region by connecting them to the sites data partners and talent strategies that they need to be successful here.

- So it's about business development and jobs, bringing prosperity to Ohio?

- It really is.

Yes.

- So tell us a little bit about your background, how you got into this.

You have an MBA and you got all kinds of experience.

But tell our audience.

- Yeah.

So, I grew up in Cleveland, in the city of Cleveland, and my dad was in community development for the city.

And so I grew up, you know, understanding how cities work and the interaction between the work that needs to be done and the quality of life within the community, which always just really fascinated me.

And so I went to Hiram College, got my master's degree at Cleveland State, and I've been in the economic development space ever since.

And both the city side, small city, big city county for about eight years before I went to Team NEO.

And Team NEO at the time, which was about 17 years ago, had all people from business in it and it was a little bit like a consulting firm, non-for-profit consulting firm helping companies.

But they really didn't understand how to talk to government and how to really be that bridge in bringing the company and the community together.

- So what— - That's the specialty that I brought to the organization, and we've grown tremendously since then.

We have lots of people that can do that.

- So what are the component parts of encouraging business to come to Ohio or to stay in Ohio or to expand?

What are the component parts?

- Yeah, so we work primarily with traded sector industry.

So that's a fancy word to just mean that they sell their goods or services outside of Ohio.

So nothing that's just resident facing or population serving.

Like we don't do retail.

We don't do health care.

It's, you know, largely manufacturing is the easy way to think about it though we do more than that.

Manufacturing is probably it's definitely the biggest part of what we do.

And so to help companies to either, you know, grow here or to come here for the first time, Northeast Ohio has all the fundamentals.

We're very strong when it comes to manufacturing technologies, manufacturing legacy for our workforce.

We have a very robust and built out infrastructure.

You know, you think about everyone's talking about power these days.

You need so much power.

We have a great infrastructure for that.

- You need water.

- We have water, right.

We have the, you know, one of the greatest lakes in the world, right here at our footprint.

So in our footprint and (unintelligible).

And so it's making sure that the companies know of all of these resources that are available.

So a lot of it is conversations and communication.

And really just a relationship building so that they can understand, companies can understand they can turn to us and will be able to connect them to things that they need or problem solve for them around things that are separate from the business side of things, right?

And in attracting companies here, it's again the same thing.

It's about getting the word out about everything we have here and how well it fits with the manufacturer.

- Let me give you an example.

Let's say there's some company that wants to find a factory site or warehouse site.

How do you go about helping them?

What do you do for them that they can't do themselves?

Or maybe you do it a little differently than they do.

- Yeah, that's a great question.

So, you know, brokers and developers are key partners to us of what we do.

But when we're talking about a company coming here for the first time, a lot of times what they're looking for is, does the site work?

Real estate is very limited in the U.S.

right now.

Really, in a lot of parts of the world, real estate with infrastructure to it like we talked about.

- Location, location.

- Location, location, location, right?

And we have a strong workforce when it comes to manufacturing, and we're within 60% of the population of not only the U.S.

but Canada within a day's drive.

So you can get your truck, your goods and service, you know, your goods to 60% of the population of both countries within one day, which is very appealing.

What we don't have is a great number of sites and buildings that are ready for companies.

Most of the buildings here in Northeast Ohio were built before 1964, so they don't have the ceiling height, the column width, the kinds of things that companies need for modern manufacturing.

- Or they're multi-story instead of being single story.

- Exactly.

Yeah.

And we have old car manufacturers in Cleveland that operated on four levels.

The big ramps where the cars would come down, you know, that's not the way manufacturers work today.

- The old tire plants.

- Right.

So it's really working with all of those partners to make sure that we have as much information as possible.

And similar to you and I, these companies are shopping online before they ever call us.

When I started doing this work, they would call and you would build a relationship and you could answer a lot of questions.

Now, just like all of us, they're getting all of their data and information online, including our sites and buildings.

And when they come to us, they have a very specific question and a very short amount of time that they needed answered in.

So that's where those relationships really come in handy.

If we have a company that comes to us and says, well, this site looks great, I've read everything about it online.

I understand that it has all the utilities to it, that it's close to, you know, a 30 minute drive time to workforce that has the skill set that I need.

But we're pretty heavy gas users.

So can you tell me the size of the line and the pressure of the gas that comes into that building or that site?

- Makes a difference.

- It makes a difference.

And it's a very unique piece of information that as economic developers, we're the only ones who really work with all those utilities to gather that information at one time.

- Or whether they need a rail line to be nearby.

- Oh yeah.

Rail is a yeah, it's, you know, you're either in or out if you have rail.

Or if somebody needs it.

- So, companies are also looking competitively for where they can make the most money in terms of where they locate, what types of resources can you provide them in terms of grants or incentives of some sort of there.

Where do they go to find out about things like that?

So Team NEO is the Jobs Ohio Network partner, which means that there are— Jobs Ohio is the state economic development agency.

It is a private nonprofit, funded through liquor profits.

- Appointed by the governor?

- The board is appointed by the governor.

They handle the liquor business in the state of Ohio on behalf of the state.

So that's a an agreement and profits— - Profit to that.

- So, yeah.

Right.

And I mean, it's great thing because it's recession proof.

People drink when there's good times.

They drink when there’s bad times, right?

And so all the taxes go to the state of Ohio.

And then there's a profit sharing mechanism that funds economic development and that's where we get to the incentives.

And I can talk about those, but I think more importantly, it's again, going back to the region already has a low cost, low risk business case.

So we have affordable housing, right?

We have a, you know, you can raise kids here and send them to good schools.

We have an overbuilt infrastructure.

Our highway infrastructure was built in the 1960s when our population was rising.

It's never been that high since the infrastructure was built, which means that I can live 30 miles away from work and get there in 30 minutes.

That's pretty standard as Northeast Ohioans.

That's how we think, right?

That's how, you know, it's 60 miles away, it'll take me an hour.

- As compared to a place like New York, where ten miles is an hour and a half.

- Right.

Or Chicago, you know, there's places where you don't have those things.

So we are already competitive from a cost standpoint.

We are already competitive from a proximity location standpoint.

We are already competitive from a supply chain standpoint.

So if you're manufacturing something here in Northeast Ohio, you can get all of the raw materials you need right here in Northeast Ohio, or at least the state of Ohio.

You don't have to go very far to get your most materials, and raw materials for manufacturing.

And if you do have to go somewhere further, let's say you are in chemical manufacturing and you need something sent up from Houston or something like that.

There are already a whole cluster of companies around you that also need that raw material.

So that supply chain is already built in for a new company coming in to take advantage of.

So.

- A lot of synergy.

- Right.

All of those things add up.

We have great colleges and universities, lots of partnerships, lots of people graduating with skill sets that are needed in manufacturing.

And then all things being equal, incentives come in and incentives are really to incent someone to do something.

So as Team NEO and Jobs Ohio and the state of Ohio, as we look at things and communities as well, we look at the opportunity.

We try to understand what is the barrier to this happening here in Northeast Ohio versus somewhere else, and how can we use the incentive, the dollars that we have to overcome that barrier?

Sometimes it's incentives.

Other times it's things like, we had a company that was looking to move because the turning radius onto their highway, the closest highway entrance to them— - Didn't work out so well.

- Didn't work for their trucks.

And so their trucks were driving another two miles down the road to get onto the highway.

Well, we were able to bring in the partners at Odot, at the state, at others to make those changes over time.

- It's a big deal.

- That would give that company certainty, right?

Because every mile that their truck is traveling that's not on a highway is very expensive for them.

- So it's a lot of talk about the need to bring back companies to the United States who left.

And your organization refers to that as reshoring or something?

- Reshoring or onshoring.

Right.

- How do you do that?

How do you encourage people to come home?

- Yeah.

It's really about, again back to the relationships.

But it's also knowing the companies that we have here.

We have a great research department.

They have a lot of skill in helping us to target companies so that we know who's in growth rate, you know, in growth mode, understanding what products they make, what raw materials they need, and then where there might be an opportunity due to tariffs or other reasons for things to come back to the US, and then we go and have a conversation with them or they've already identified it and they come and find us.

So, Jergens in Cleveland, it's a great example of that.

They've just done some reshoring, adding 25 new jobs.

- What kind of company is Jergens?

- Jergens does— Yeah, it sounds familiar, right?

It's an advanced manufacturing company that's been in Cleveland for over 100 years, and they make parts for aerospace and a lot of mobility - Big jobs.

sorts of issues.

Yes.

And they make pieces that go into almost every type of mobility project, whether it's an airplane, a car or something like that.

So, you know, they had shipped some of their work overseas and really, when taking another look at things, and seeing the improvements of some machinery and equipment that they could purchase, but they thought that this is a more cost effective piece of material to manufacture in Cleveland than they were doing overseas.

- With your organization's help.

- Yes.

And we help them make those numbers work for them.

- Wow.

You’re tuned into Forum 360.

Our special guest today, Christine Nelson.

And we've been talking about bringing jobs and business back to Northeast Ohio.

Let's talk about how is it that your organization has been responsible for more successes than maybe some competitors within your organization?

What are you doing making Northeast Ohio the winner?

- So Northeast Ohio is already in a really strong place across the state.

We are 35% of the state of Ohio's population, gross domestic product, number of liquor stores.

There's a lot of different ways you can look at it.

Workforce, that we are about 35% of the state.

So we, you know, as Northeast Ohio goes, Ohio goes.

And that's a really important distinction.

But we are doing, last year we helped 92 companies grow.

The year before that was 125 companies, which was really a point of pride for our entire team, because whether it's a small business that we're working with, we have a small business grant that we work with small manufacturers on.

And they're creating 1 or 2 jobs to add to their, you know, 5 or 10 that they have, that’s big growth for them.

- What have you been doing for groundbreaking activity?

Literally groundbreaking.

- Literally groundbreaking activities.

- When I saw a picture of you with the shovel.

- Yeah.

I think the picture of me with the shovel in hand was at, was in Stark County where we were doing a groundbreaking for Tractor Supply was setting up a big distribution center in Stark County.

And that was, you know, a couple hundred jobs, - Couple hundred jobs is a big thing.

- Yeah, but, you know, and that was an attraction.

We helped it to help them land there.

Another one was Viega.

Viega is a great example of a foreign owned company.

They have operations here in the U.S.

they're headquartered, U.S.

headquarters in Colorado, but they needed to do manufacturing in the United States.

They weren't doing manufacturing here yet.

And so we help them to find a site that they could build on, that they could go to, which is out in Portage County.

Even before that, we had helped the developer to even make that site an option for companies, right?

So we're working way at the beginning to say where are competitive locations and then working with the private sector to build out those locations for companies.

Then we got into conversations with Viega, started talking to them about why Northeast Ohio versus some of the other places they were looking in the U.S., and ultimately they made the decision to come here because of lower costs, ample and skilled workforce, and the ready infrastructure and transportation modes that they could get to and the environment.

We didn't talk about that.

Let's talk about that for a minute.

Low risk.

Ohio, Michigan, parts of Pennsylvania.

When you look at a map of natural disasters, Northeast Ohio, parts of Michigan, parts of Pennsylvania, we do not get hit with natural disasters that shut us down for days, like a hurricane.

- Or huge wildfires - Or a huge wildfire or even a big tornado.

We have little ones, but they don't stick around, right?

So that's a real advantage.

We have tornado lights, right.

- So let's say there's another foreign company that wants it saying, “Boy, we really need an outlet.” We need a distribution or whatever.

Who would they call?

- Yeah.

So they can call Team NEO.

I mean, really, it's, they can call Team NEO, but we have an ecosystem here that they can call anyone in Northeast Ohio in the economic development space.

So if they call the Greater Akron Chamber in Akron, they're going to get directed to us and get information.

If they're in a particular city and they call their city government and their economic development director there, that person knows what we do and how to bring us in to the conversation and when to.

So we really have a very tight and succinct ecosystem here that allows us to meet companies where they enter and elevate them, or move them to where they need to be, introduce them to the right people, or to solve their problems at the level in which they enter.

You know, there's lots of different levels of expertise and assistance that can come into play, and our job is to make sure that we know all of those and can bring them to the right people.

- And Team NEO has a website?

We do, northeastohioregion.org.

- Wonderful.

So we talked about businesses that you've been involved in, let's talk about government.

Can we talk about NASA?

- Sure.

- What is NASA and what are you all doing with NASA?

- NASA is a tremendous resource and asset that we have here.

So it’s the only NASA center that is in the North.

All of other NASA centers are in southern United States.

- Where people think of Texas and Florida for the space program.

- Right.

And they have specific space missions that they do there.

Right.

That's where takeoffs happen.

They have specific things that they're doing.

What our NASA center does here in Cleveland is it supports all of those.

So any type of material that you want to use in space is tested through NASA Glenn.

Any kind of product that you want to have in space, tested through NASA Glenn.

They can test and work with and produce different types of products that can work in a space environment in very different space environments, whether it's the Moon or Mars or somewhere else.

They can adjust how they're working within the assets that they have at NASA Glenn to replicate that space environment.

So any of the missions that have gone out have gone through NASA Glenn and their researchers and engineers there to ensure the safety.

- And what does Team NEO do with this?

- So then with NASA, what we do is we bring companies to the table that may be able to use some of those assets and those resources to do their own product development.

We also work very strongly with NASA to see how do they want to grow?

What else do they want there?

There is about 6,000 acres out in Erie County.

- That's all?

- That NASA owns.

And they have incredible testing facilities that SpaceX and you know, anyone who's putting anything into space is testing out there.

And so we are helping them and looking with them on what kind of companies would benefit from using NASA and being in proximity to NASA.

And how do we make that happen?

Bring those partnerships together.

- What's been the most challenging part of your job?

- Getting the word out on Northeast Ohio.

You know, one is, we’re Northeast Ohio, we're not Cleveland, we're not Akron, we're not Canton, right?

- How many counties is that?

- 14 counties, three major cities with Cleveland, Akron and Canton.

No one else has that, right?

Columbus has Columbus, Cincinnati has Cincinnati.

You might have like, Dallas Fort Worth, but they kind of grew up together.

Akron, Cleveland are a little different than that so it's hard to be able to pinpoint where we are on a map.

- But they all have a strong manufacturing background.

- Yes, we all do.

As Northeast Ohio, we're very strong in manufacturing, and we have a very good story to tell.

The other part is like we talked about Jergens or we talked about Viega.

These are companies that make parts that go into lots of things.

So we actually power the world from Northeast Ohio.

Every manufacturing, you know, thing that comes out, final product, I would say it's safe to say 80 to 90% of them have a Northeast Ohio product in them.

So we power the world.

But it's not as easy to say we are the robotics capital, like Pittsburgh has said.

So we have some changes in there.

- What industries are growing here in Northeast Ohio?

- Aerospace and defense.

We not only have a lot of aerospace suppliers like Jergens, others that supply Airbus and others, the Boeing.

But we also have a lot of Navy suppliers.

So as new ships are being built, a lot of supply chain going through Northeast Ohio right now to get to those new ships that will be built.

We have chemicals and materials.

So everything from Sherwin-Williams, which is a chemical and materials and coatings company, to, you know, maybe a smaller— - They cover a lot of subjects.

- They cover a lot of— Yes.

They do.

You know, we can do anything in the materials, coatings, polymers, sustainable polymers are a big emerging technology right now.

- With the Polymer Institute.

- Right.

And the polymer cluster in Akron and the Polymer Institute and what everything's going on at the University of Akron.

That's a huge field for us to be looking into in the next 10 to 20 years.

- What's the most surprising thing that has happened?

- I would say the best thing about my job is that I sell Northeast Ohio for a living.

I sell a place that I grew up in, I love, that I believe in, and you can't get any better than that talking about, you know, what we have as a region.

I think one of the most surprising things always, though, is when people come from out of town in Destination Cleveland, the Convention and Visitors Bureau, they'll say the same thing.

And we'll get people on, you know, looking out at the lake, and they'll say, is that an ocean?

Is that a lake?

The size and scope of a great lake is very surprising to people, which is always fun.

- What are you proudest of that Team NEO has done in the last few years?

- We have— I mean, over the 17 years that I've been there, we average about 15, 12 to 15 new companies a year come to Northeast Ohio.

- That seems like a lot.

- Yeah, it's in the hundreds of companies that I have now helped.

- How many jobs have you encouraged?

New jobs.

- I don't know what the total is.

Maybe you have it in your notes.

I really, I don't remember, but it's extensive.

It's hundreds of thousands, if not a million - As part of the wins of your organization.

- It is.

It is.

It's part of the wins and, you know, I'm a project manager by nature so by the time a win is announced, I'm already six months past set, looking at the next one I want to help.

- What does Project NEO characterize as a win?

- Yeah.

- As it has more wins than the other divisions.

- So as a Jobs Ohio Network partner, we have the privilege of being able to work with a company through their incentive process and actually negotiate those incentives for jobs and capital investment that they agree to on the other end.

And so we have actual contracts with these companies where they sign on the dotted line and say, this is what I'm going to do and that's a win.

- What advice do you have for children who might like to get into this type of work as you did at your father's?

- Yeah.

I have twin boys that are almost 21.

So we have a lot of conversations about this and it's really finding what your passion is.

And I guarantee you there is a job in manufacturing that matches it.

And if you want to get into economic development, that's just knowing a lot about a, you know, a little bit about a lot of things, which I find absolutely fascinating.

I learn something new every day.

But really get involved and take pride in your community and that's the best way to engage.

- What's next for you Team NEO?

What's next?

- We are going hard at business attraction this year.

We are doubling or tripling our spend on that to really get companies to understand and look at Northeast Ohio in a very serious way.

We've always done this work, but I think now we are escalating it to a higher level because the community is ready.

We are ready for bigger investments.

- Very exciting.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

What are— What is a number that people can call if they want to talk.

- Yeah.

So it’s the Team NEO website.

Like I mentioned, you go to teamneo.org, or Northeast Ohio region.org.

And then our phone number is (216) 363-5400.

- You've been tuned in today to Forum 360.

Very excited to have our guest here, Miss Christine Nelson from Team NEO talking about development jobs coming back to Ohio.

These are the people who are making it happen.

On behalf of Forum 360, I'm Sally Henning.

Forum 360 is brought to you by John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the Akron Community Foundation, Hudson Community Television, the Rubber City Radio Group, Shaw Jewish Community Center of Akron, Blue Green, Electric Impulse Communications, and Forum 360 supporters.