Fund President Looks Ahead
January 08, 2010
Published by CrainsCleveland.com
By Jay Miller
Given the chance to predict the future for Northeast Ohio's economy, the leaders of two of the region's most active and important nonprofit economic groups evaded the question.
But they did give an audience at the City Club of Cleveland today their perspective on where the region is and what it will take to succeed in the decade ahead.
Brad Whitehead, president of the Fund for Our Economic Future, described the region as being in a cocoon.
“We used to be this caterpillar that was set up for an old economy, and hopefully we're moving to where we're going to be this new butterfly for the competitive, global, technology-driven economy of the future,” he said. “But our structure is still like a caterpillar, and we want to be a butterfly. What that means is right now we're in the cocoon, and that must be really painful.”
Tom Waltermire, president of Team NEO, predicted that by 2020, “We'll be more educated, more global and more collaborative.”
The Fund for Our Economic Future is financed by area foundations. It works to improve the region's economic competitiveness by making government's work better together and by developing the region's businesses and its work force. Team NEO seeks to attract new business to the region.
Both Mr. Waltermire and Mr. Whitehead emphasized that the regional economy has a good base to expand in biotechnology and advanced manufacturing, and that Northeast Ohio could be a world leader in those areas as well as in the field of advanced energy.
Mr. Waltermire said the region also has the potential to be a center for logistics, a hub for the efficient movement of components and finished goods from manufacturers to consumers.
“We're right in the middle of what is still the heart of the North American economy,” he said. “Logistics is very important and a real advantage for us.”