A PRESIDENTIAL VISIT

President Barack Obama brought a message of optimism to the Triangle earlier this week.

Obama visited Durham Monday to meet with the Jobs and Competitiveness Council and to deliver remarks on the issues of job creation and economic sustainability at Cree, Inc., a leading manufacturer of energy efficient LED lighting technology. Obama toured the facilities before hearing a presentation from the council. This was Obama’s second visit to Cree, following a 2008 campaign stop prior to the North Carolina primary election. His visit Monday precedes the Democratic National Convention to be held in Charlotte in September 2012, and addressed the need for growth in the American economy—an issue that will likely be prominent in the 2012 presidential election.

“We put [the council] together many months ago—not in response to one jobs report, but because we understood even though the economy was growing, it wasn’t growing as fast as we want, and it wasn’t producing as many jobs as we want,” Obama said in his speech. “I told them I wanted to hear every smart, forward-thinking idea that they have to quicken the pace of job growth and make sure our economy and our workers can adapt to changing times.”

The Jobs and Competitiveness Council was commissioned by the White House in January to advise the president on strategies to boost the economy, the domestic job market and industry competitiveness. The council—led by Jeffrey Immelt, Chairman and CEO of General Electric—is a nonpartisan body focusing on growth and innovation, drawing from the expertise of 26 members from various economic sectors.

The council met for the first time at the White House February 24, but chose the Triangle—noted for its research, innovation and manufacturing—as the location for its first off-site meeting. The president’s visit was supplemented by various “listening and action sessions” across the Raleigh-Durham area on topics such as entrepreneurship, biotechnology, workforce training and energy innovation. The panels featured prominent figures within the president’s administration and the private sector, including Facebook’s Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg and Gary Kelly, chairman, president and CEO of Southwest Airlines.

The Jobs Council convened at Cree not only because of its recent growth but also because of its commitment to clean energy, a sector the Jobs Council Obama said is one of the more promising fields in terms of growth and sustainability. Cree, which was founded in 1987 by North Carolina State University engineering students, earns more than $1 billion in annual revenue, up from $500 million in 2008. LED sales are 70 percent of Cree’s overall revenue—a 10 percent increase since 2008. The company has added 1,000 employees during the past three years.

Obama said he and the council view Cree as a model for future businesses in terms of both job opportunities and clean energy innovation in technical fields. The federal government invested in Cree with both a tax credit and a grant from the Department of Energy, which allowed for additional hires and less costly and more efficient breakthroughs in “smart grid” technology to transmit clean, renewable energy.

“At Cree, you’re putting people back to work in a field that has the potential to create an untold number of new jobs and new businesses right here in America—and that’s clean energy,” Obama said. “I want to see the LEDs and solar panels and wind turbines and electric cars of tomorrow made right here in the U.S. of A. I want them made right here.”

In a state with the 10th highest unemployment rate of 9.7 percent as of April, Obama emphasized the importance of state and community colleges, specifically education in engineering and the applied sciences. Obama also discussed the high demand for workers in these fields. He added that for every job opening in America, there are more than four job-seekers, noting that the opposite is true for science-related industries.

Obama said the Triangle area is particularly poised to train students for these “jobs of the future.”

“Because you’ve got these great schools, you can hold your own talent draft—not just in basketball, but when it comes to highly skilled workers,” he said.

Obama and the Jobs Council hope to enact various initiatives, such as the creation of a private consortium and university partnerships, to graduate more than 10,000 engineers every year. They also plan to partner with community colleges across the nation to develop advanced vocational training in manufacturing.

“What [Obama] said is exactly right,” Miller said in an interview. “Companies like Cree, with innovative technologies coming from universities, given some help [can take products] from the lab to the marketplace. A company created from a handful of students at North Carolina State University now leads the world in LED lighting. With 5,000 people employed, it’s a great success story that the next big technology company was homegrown.”

Cree employees similarly acknowledged the demand for skilled workers and well-prepared engineering students. Don Hirsh, Cree product marketing manager, said in an interview that Cree relies almost exclusively on new engineering graduates and seeks students specifically with quantitative backgrounds.

“The number of companies doing what it takes for energy shows the value of clean production in the Triangle,” Hirsh said, calling Obama’s remarks—and the Jobs Council’s suggestions—“symbolically powerful.”

Room for growth

Mark Twisdale, senior vice president of human resources at State Employees’ Credit Union and a guest of Miller, commended the council’s recommendations and Obama’s plan for job creation, both in North Carolina and across the nation. Twisdale noted in an interview that the State Employees’ Credit Union sponsors scholarships for engineering education and said, if these plans work, it will create positive traction for tech and manufacturing companies

“STEM is where we need to be going in schools,” he said. “These are the concepts that are going to pay off.”

Greg Merritt, vice president of corporate marketing for Cree, stressed the dual importance of technical training in clean energy fields. Merritt called the objective of the Jobs Council “right on,” adding that energy efficient manufacturing—especially like that at Cree—will spark job creation in other industries as well.

“The work of the Jobs Council is very important because we’re trying to hire those people that are hard to find—that are qualified,” Merritt said in an interview. “The secondary impact is that with more employment, there is a better market for our product, and our technology can continue to grow and innovate.”

At the conclusion of his remarks, Obama lauded the American economy’s ability to grow and the future job market, though noted that Americans should continue to innovate.

“I am optimistic about our future. We can’t be complacent. We shouldn’t pretend that a lot of folks out there are not still struggling, but I am absolutely optimistic that we’ve got everything it takes for us to succeed in the 21st century,” Obama said. “Americans do not respond to trials by lowering our sights or downscaling our dreams or settling for something less. We are a people who dream big, even when times are tough—especially when times are tough. We’re a people who reach forward, who look out to the horizon and remember that, together, there’s nothing we can’t do.”