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Dear Friends and Colleagues,
It was a great pleasure for me to come the offices of the South Carolina Council on Competitiveness on July 1st and begin my service as President & CEO. I had served on task forces and initiatives of the Council in other professional capacities and was energized by the excitement of conversations in the state focused on business, government and academic leadership convening around a vision for a “New Carolina.”
As the organization enters its tenth year, that original vision of South Carolina as a dynamic competitive presence in national and international areas remains, though our circumstances have evolved. We’ve weathered a national recession but seen our state emerge as a leader in the U.S. manufacturing renaissance. We’ve made a statewide commitment to the deepening of the Port of Charleston and cheered the opening of the Inland Port in our Upstate. We’ve seen the creation of our state’s first Office of Innovation within our Department of Commerce and an increase in entrepreneurial activity across the state. We’ve celebrated South Carolina’s recognition as an international leader in workforce development through apprenticeships. We’ve benefited from the creation of the SmartState™ Centers of Economic Excellence that attract world-class talent and discoveries to our state’s research universities.
The South Carolina Council on Competitiveness is proud to have played a role—always in collaboration with our partners from across the state—in these bellwether achievements. We’re also committed to continuous innovation, self-assessment, and upgrading the business environment to attract and grow high-impact, high-wage industries.
Advancing the economic competitiveness of our state, industries, and citizens remains our core focus, and we are again placing that commitment front and center in our identity. Beginning today, you’ll see us return to “South Carolina Council on Competitiveness” in our name and branding and on our new website at www.sccompetes.org. Our work will be more clearly organized around three themes of actionable research, support for industry clusters, and education and workforce initiatives.
As a supporter and partner of the South Carolina Council on Competitiveness, I wanted to personally reach out to you to thank you for your continued dedication to our work and provide you a look at our future direction. Sustained collaboration among the private, public, academic, and non-profit sectors is the key to our collective success.
I look forward to joining you.
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