February 1, 2010         

GOOD DAY!    

This is MONDAYMEMO, the weekly report from the RCGA President to Board members and other key investors. MONDAYMEMO is published by the St. Louis Regional Chamber and Growth Association, One Metropolitan Square, Suite 1300, St. Louis, MO 63102. To unsubscribe or change your address or method of delivery, reply to mondaymemo@stlrcga.org. Please note:  RCGA had a system-wide computer outage yesterday.  As a result, MONDAY MEMO is being distributed this morning.  Sorry for any inconvenience.

Chinese Ambassador Zhou Wenzhong Meets With Business And Elected Leaders At Emerson, RCGA And In Jefferson City Today And Tomorrow:  Chinese Ambassador to the United States Zhou Wenzhong spoke at the RCGA this afternoon as part of a jam-packed two-day itinerary that began this morning with meetings and later a luncheon at Emerson, continued with his presentation at the RCGA’s Regional Collaboration Center, and concludes this evening with Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon and First Lady Georganne Nixon hosting a State Dinner at the Governor’s Mansion for Midwest-China Hub Commission members, business and legislative leaders.

The Ambassador’s trip to Missouri today and tomorrow, hosted by the Midwest-China Hub Commission, is the latest development as part of the “Big Idea” Project to establish the bi-state St. Louis region as the Midwestern hub for China.

St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley and U.S. Congressman Roy Blunt, right, present Chinese Ambassador to the United States Zhou Wenzhong with the “Ice Breaker” Award, recognizing his strong advocacy for the “Big Idea” China Project.

The RCGA audience today for the Ambassador’s and Stephen Perry’s presentations included elected officials and members of the recently established six Business Councils by the Midwest-China Hub Commission.  Ambassador Zhou is pictured at the podium.

Arriving this morning at Lambert from Washington, D.C, Ambassador Zhou was greeted by a St. Louis delegation comprised of Mayor Francis Slay; St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley; Midwest-China Hub Commission Chairman Mike Jones; Lambert-St. Louis International Airport Director Rhonda Hamm-Niebruegge; Lambert Marketing Director Brian Kinsey; Paul McKee and Chris McKee of McEagle Properties; Midwest-China Hub Commission Executive Director Jason Van Eaton; attorney Steve Stone; Tim Nowak, Executive Director of the World Trade Center Saint Louis, and me.

Emerson Chairman, President & CEO David Farr and U.S. Sen. Kit Bond hosted the Ambassador at Emerson for a luncheon of area CEOs and health care industry presentations by Express Scripts; the Washington University Medical School; BJC; and Ascension Health, as well as remarks by London Export CEO and 48 Group Chairman Stephen Perry.

Today’s events then moved to the RCGA for the Midwest-China Hub Commission Business Council presentation, and included remarks by U.S. Rep. Roy Blunt and Stephen Perry.  Ambassador Zhou’s presentation, entitled, “U.S. China Relations in the Next Decade,” was followed by a Q&A session. The Ambassador also met at the RCGA with 26 Chinese college students from St. Louis area universities.

Following his meetings at the RCGA, Ambassador Zhou, Mrs. Zhou and the Chinese delegation traveled to Jefferson City for the Ambassador’s news conference with Gov. Nixon, followed by a reception and State Dinner at the Governor’s Mansion.  Guests this evening included business and elected officials, leaders from the Missouri Legislature and members of the Hub Commission.

Ambassador Zhou’s trip to Missouri continues tomorrow with a Breakfast hosted by Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder and Missouri legislative leaders: Speaker Ron Richard; House Majority Leader Steve Tilley; Senate Pro Tem Charlie Shields; and Senate Majority Leader Kevin Engler. 

St. Louis Regional Bio-Sciences Talent Task Force Launches Coordinated Response:  Some 90 stakeholders in St. Louis’ Plant and Life Sciences community gathered for three hours this past Friday to build a coordinated strategy for future vitality in this key sector.  The meeting, which was held in the RCGA Regional Collaboration Center, focused on ways to sharpen the region’s competitive advantage by re-engaging and retaining scientific talent now in career transition due to the regional impacts of global economic restructuring.

Missouri Department of Economic Development Director David Kerr and I are co-chairing the Task Force that is focusing on this issue.  He encouraged and commended leaders from business, finance, government and academia who are working together to re-position our bio-sciences sector in response to new market conditions and opportunities. 

Experienced entrepreneurs and venture capitalists lent their perspectives to the subject of new science start-ups. From left: Ben Johnson, Eric Gulve, Tom Melzer, Bob Calcaterra, John McDonnell and Francis Chmelir.

Task force co-chairs and colleagues discussed potential resourcing options.  From left: Don Frail, scribe Mark Hurst, David Kerr, Dick Fleming, Kelly Gillespie and Libbey Malberg.

Area workforce development representatives explore options for preparing the future scientific workforce.  From left: Joann Digman, Mike Gavura, Don Holt, Joe Castellano, Cynthia Kraemer, Olivia Lindsey, Mary Bruton, Walle Amusa, scribe David Walker, Gene Gorden and Pam Gustava Curry.

The program began with a statistical review of the St. Louis’ Plant and Life Sciences sector, delivered by Mary Bruton, Workforce Analysis Manager of the Missouri Economic Research and Information Center.  Cyd Dodson, Vice President of Career Services and Consulting for Right Management, augmented these data with an overview of talent trends among those science-intensive firms served by Right, which is the region’s largest out-placement services firm. 

With these reports as background, seven individuals made short presentations on a sampling of the creative ideas now percolating in the region to retain and re-engage scientific talent. The presenters were: Eric Gulve, Interim President of BioGenerator; Denny Coleman, President of the St. Louis County Economic Council; Doug Rau, Vice President for Human Resources at Sigma-Aldrich; Steve Trampe, Principal of Owen Development; Karen Seibert, Vice President of Research at Pfizer; Steve Johnson, RCGA Senior Vice President for Economic Development; and Marcia Mellitz, President & CEO of the Center for Emerging Technologies.

As hoped, the seven initial ideas sparked an abundance of others, which were recorded in small groups coordinated by Pam Caraffa of Caraffa Consulting.  The groups identified potential strategies to address four goals:

• Attract bio-science firms into the region
• Grow existing plant / life science firms and research institutions
• Start new science-intensive businesses; and
• Prepare the future scientific workforce

They were facilitated by regional players with a variety of perspectives, including Ben Johnson of the Coalition for Plant and Life Sciences; Ed Bryant and Sue Charron of Pfizer; Judy Pannett, Olivia Lindsey and Jim Hillerman of Right Management; Sheila Williams and Mike Gavura from the Missouri Department of Economic Development; and Marshall Michener, a transitioning science professional.

David Kerr will join me again at the end of February for a follow-up meeting of the Bio-Sciences Talent Task Force.  Participants in this meeting will consider a draft regional strategy constructed from the creative ideas emanating from Friday’s discussions.  A small multi-agency team is working now to connect the many dots put forward in the first gathering.

Additional perspectives and suggestions are most welcome.  For more information about the RCGA’s workforce development initiatives, please contact Blair Forlaw of the RCGA’s Talent Development Initiative, at 314.444.1149 or bforlaw@stlrcga.org.

High Speed Rail Initiative Takes Major Step Forward:  This past Thursday, President Obama announced the distribution of $8 billion in federal Recovery Act funding for 13 new high speed rail corridors across the nation, including Chicago-St. Louis-Kansas City.  That afternoon, Dr. Ed Montgomery, Executive Director of the White House Council on Automotive Communities and Workers, and Karen Rae, Deputy Administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration, brought this good news to St. Louis at an announcement made at the Gateway Multimodal Transportation Center downtown.  Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon, U.S. Rep. Russ Carnahan, Mayor Francis Slay, MoDOT Director Pete Rahn and other leaders applauded the announcement.

On Friday, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin and U.S. Rep. Jerry Costello, Amtrak Board Chairman Tom Carper, and other Illinois state and local officials assembled in Alton to herald the award.  Gov. Quinn touted the 6,000 jobs estimated to be created by the award and how important the project is for the economy, as well as the environment.  Sen. Durbin spoke about railroads having been a part of the region’s history and strength, and that this award will mean railroads will continue to serve that role into the future.  Rep. Costello spoke about his efforts to bring high speed rail to the corridor, which began back in 1991, and his enthusiasm for moving forward not only in the Midwest, but across the nation.

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon, center, speaks at the news conference on Thursday at the Gateway Transportation Center downtown.  Also pictured are Ed Montgomery, left, and U.S. Rep. Russ Carnahan.	Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn, center, at his news conference on Friday at the Alton Amtrak Station. U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, left, and U.S. Rep. Jerry Costello, right, joined the Governor.  Pictured in the background behind Rep. Costello is SIUE Chancellor and RCGA Board member Dr. Vaughn Vandegrift.

Illinois will receive $1.1 billion, the nation’s 3rd largest corridor award, for Phase I improvements to the Chicago-St. Louis corridor, including upgrades to track, signal systems and stations, implementation of positive train control technology, and additional environmental work needed to operate service at speeds up to 110 mph in the corridor.  In addition, Illinois will receive $134 million in funding for smaller rail improvements in the State.

Missouri will receive $31 million to continue improvements in the St. Louis-Kansas City corridor, including a second rail bridge over the Osage River, a universal crossover in Webster Groves, and safety improvements at rail crossings.  In addition, the award will fund preliminary engineering for six future improvements in the corridor worth $100 million.  Missouri’s high speed rail work promises to support 190 direct jobs.

These Illinois and Missouri high speed rail improvements are a part of a larger Midwest regional effort in the Chicago Hub Network that captured $2.6 billion of the $8 billion in Recovery Act funding.

It’s also interesting to note that part of the rationale for choosing Chicago in Fall 2008 for the RCGA Annual Leadership Trip was to advance this high speed rail initiative as part of the overall issue of how St. Louis can establish stronger links between our region and Chicago as part of a broader, mega-regional strategy. 

One of the four going forward regional strategic initiatives that the RCGA Board of Directors has adopted for priority focus in the years ahead is "Leveraging the Region's Locational Advantage".  There are several elements in this initiative --- such as taking full advantage of the "Big Idea" China Project for making the bi-state St. Louis region the hub for the center of the U.S., as well as significantly enhancing our already considerable assets in freight and distribution infrastructure.  A third element of this initiative is establishing a high speed passenger rail link between St. Louis and Chicago.

Have a good week.



Richard C.D. Fleming
President and CEO