THE CEO INTERVIEW www.ceotodaymagazine.com 29 of our young people are. We have helped students find a path forward, instilled confidence and developed mentor relationships that have expanded their career opportunities and horizon. It doesn’t take a lot of money to inspire our youth and change their trajectory. The traditional speeches by economic developers are about workforce development, economic development and jobs. At HCDC we actually create jobs through our workforce development initiative, I sign the SEA Force paychecks, and we have unlimited opportunity to help others move toward a better career path. SEA Force interns have helped create national marketing campaigns, written articles published regionally, produced and edited video for ESPN, designed the yearly HCDC custom socks, or learned the engineering specialty they wanted to pursue. Another significant outcome has been the creation of two-way relationships— students return to school and share what they do and then their friends want to do that as well; the business learns to appreciate how talented these students are and want to hire more. SEA Force interns have helped create national marketing campaigns, written articles published regionally, produce and edited video for ESPN, designed the yearly HCDC custom socks, or learned the engineering speciality they wanted to pursue. A significant outcome has been the creation of two-way relationships— students return to school and share what they do and then their friends want to do that as well; the business learns to appreciate how talented these students are and want to hire more. Here’s a success story: A local plant manager named Mark was having difficulty finding suitable employees. We took him on a tour of the Career and Technical Education program at Gulfport High School and let him describe the company to 20 teacher-selected students. One stand-out ended up starting immediately as a SEA Force intern at Mark’s plant. His first assignment was to repair, reprogram and rewire a machine, which the student fixed in a little over an hour. A specialist would have had to be flown in for the repair at a high cost. As an aside, the student’s best friend also ended up working for Mark, and both students became the valedictorian and salutatorian of Gulfport High School. In turn, Mark became their mentor and helped them with college application theses and references so that these two remarkable young seniors could be accepted into the university of their choice. This is yet another example of why I am so passionate about creating hopes and aspirations for our youth. SEA Force is not a milliondollar workforce program (HCDC SEA Force wage is $9/hour with employers having an option to supplement that wage) and can be accomplished in your community as well. It’s time to stop talking about workforce and actually create the opportunities that exist in our own communities. Regardless of how much automation is implemented, ALL businesses must run on great people. My job is to initiate opportunities for my team, my partners and my community and in delivering results, I am proud to share some of the phenomenal examples and stories that I have been fortunate to help create. “Some of our notable achievements include the restoration of rail service to Bernard Bayou Industrial District, the creation of Corporate Court which is the first new BBID subdivision since the 1990s, the recruitment of Ocean Aero to Gulfport from San Diego (the first corporate relocation in decades), and engineering the first Buc-ee’s inMississippi.”
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