The Piedmont Triad economy is primed for growth in the coming years as the economy rebounds, a panel of top business executives shared Wednesday, but problems remain to be addressed. A discussion on campus sponsored by an award-winning state business magazine shed light on those issues as executives offered ideas to move the area forward.
The March 4 roundtable in the LaRose Digital Theatre was hosted Business North Carolina managing editor Arthur O. Murray and included the following panelists:
• Leo M. Lambert – president, Elon University
• David Barksdale – executive vice president and chief banking officer, NewBridge Bank
• Henry Isaacson – chairman, Piedmont Triad International Airport Authority; attorney at Isaacson Isaacson & Sheridan LLP
• Jim Powell – founder, Labcorp Inc.
• Keith Vaughan – managing member, Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, PLLC; chairman of the Piedmont Triad Regional Partnership board of directors
• Michael Freeman – vice president for strategic planning, Wake Forest University Health Services
Chief among their concerns is educating and retooling a workforce that largely remains fixed in old industries that are slowly disappearing. While panelists agreed that much of the Triad is educated and willing to learn new skills, the workforce itself isn’t big enough to handle the demands of emerging industries in health care, biotechnology and logistics.
And the panelists agreed that, for the most part, municipalities in the Triad region now work collaboratively to recruit businesses to central North Carolina, rather than compete against each other to land companies within their particular boundaries.
“The rising tide is going to lift all our boats,” Barksdale said. “We’ve got to all get behind the Piedmont Triad region.”
Much like governments working together to recruit businesses, local institutions of higher education also partner with each other, which raises the profile of every college and university in the area. “While we do compete with one another to some degree … we all realize that as we work together, all of us are going to grow stronger as a result,” Lambert said.
Panelists noted how the Triad’s infrastructure should help its future economic prospects. Several major interstate highways snake through the region, and with a centrally located international airport, which has attracted companies in recent years like FedEx and HondaJet, the Triad will continue to serve as a logistics and transportation hub for the East Coast.
The only caution, panelists said, is that governments must be careful when approving land use requests. To ignore master plans in the area around the airport is to risk a loss of usable resources and locations for companies that have an interest in expanding in the Greensboro/Winston-Salem/High Point area.
Business North Carolina has sponsored the roundtable discussions across the state for the past six years, exploring issues related to regional economies and industry clusters. Business North Carolina is a Charlotte-based monthly magazine that focuses on the people, events and trends that shape business in North Carolina.
Click here to read the Business North Carolina story on the roundtable event.
Since it began publication in 1981, it has won more than 84 national awards for its writing, reporting and design.
