HOW OHIO HAS BECOME A GROWTH HUB AND INNOVATION HOTSPOT
“In 2022 Ohio landed the Intel megaproject, creating tens of thousands of jobs and $20 billion in capital investment,” J.P. Nauseef says. Nauseef is president and CEO of JobsOhio, a state-authorized private development corporation that’s making big strides in driving job creation in the Buckeye State. “The state has been preparing for this so-called ‘Silicon Heartland’ project for 11 years.”
“Our people speak the language of business and understand the industries we work with. That is unique and we believe it gives Ohio a competitive advantage.”
How did Ohio do it?
A Welcoming Economic Ecosystem
JobsOhio was founded in 2011. Nauseef, an Air Force veteran who settled in Dayton after his service and became a startup founder and a regional economic development official, took over in 2019. The company had always done the traditional work of economic development, like making loans and grants to attract and retain businesses. Under Nauseef’s leadership, JobsOhio has been going several steps further.
“We saw a bigger opportunity and we figured we’d better start investing more in the key areas that mean the most to the siting decisions of our target industries,” he says. “So toward the end of 2019 we embarked on a five-year strategic plan to make Ohio the best place in the country to find quality sites, talent, innovation and an inclusive, welcoming economic ecosystem.”
That model is working. In 2021 alone, JobsOhio secured 413 projects, more than 29,000 jobs and $1.6 billion in new payrolls, spread across all six regions of the state.
JobsOhio is supported by a unique structure: It co-operates the Ohio Liquor enterprise and employs the profits to fund its efforts.
The corporation focuses on 10 key sectors, including logistics, financial services, food and agribusiness, manufacturing and tech. It’s staffed by business and development professionals with extensive experience in the industries they’re trying to expand—a combined 2,094 years of experience, to be precise. These professionals identify and prepare job-ready sites for companies looking to relocate or expand within the industries in question. They attract in-demand talent to the state and develop it. And they work to establish Ohio as a hotspot for innovation, one that will keep attracting promising companies.
Future Fueled By Innovation
“Ohio has a long history of innovation,” Nauseef says, citing world-changing inventions with Ohio roots, from the airplane to the light bulb to the cash register. Known as a “quiet giant” in life sciences and industrial applications, Ohio is home to renowned research universities, federal research institutes and 14 top-ranked hospital systems.
When JobsOhio convenes such institutions to work together, great things result. In 2021, for example, JobsOhio committed $300 million to combine Carnegie R1 research facilities, world-class healthcare organizations and companies in Cincinnati, Cleveland and Columbus with the goal of creating sustainable ecosystems of ideas, infrastructure and talent where the world’s top people and companies come to roll up their sleeves, innovate and grow.
A Commitment To Inclusion
Yet as much as JobsOhio zeroes in on the state’s big cities—the 3Cs, in local parlance—it’s also committed to inclusive development that will boost smaller and perhaps struggling communities. Through JobsOhio, $77 million has poured into 242 projects either owned by members of underrepresented communities or in distressed parts of the state. Those ventures have produced more than 1,300 jobs, according to JobsOhio.
“We want Ohio to be recognized for what it is,” Nauseef says. “It’s a great place to build a business or career and live your American dream. Like other Ohioans, I am determined to stay here and keep building, because our American dream just got a lot bigger.”