2014 Newsletters

Joint Venture board elects co-chair, adds 2 members
The Joint Venture board of directors appointed attorney Steven Bochner as its new co-chair and elected two new members, Marc Compton and Josué García, at its quarterly meeting in San Jose on June 13.

Bochner, a board member since 2004, is a partner and former CEO at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich and Rosati. Outgoing co-chair Chris DiGiorgio remains on the Senior Advisory Council. Compton is managing director and market executive for Silicon Valley and the East Bay with Bank of America/U.S. Trust. García is CEO of the Santa Clara and San Benito County Building and Construction Trades Council, which represents 26 unions with some 30,000 members. Read the news release.

DiGiorgio leaves board with legacy of leadership, growth
Stepping down after six years as co-chair of the Joint Venture board of directors, former Accenture executive Chris DiGiorgio can look back on a productive tenure that saw the organization expand and evolve its regional role under his leadership with co-chair Chuck Reed, mayor of San Jose.

As the private sector co-chair, DiGiorgio shaped the Joint Venture of the 21st century with the launch of the Climate Prosperity Initiative and its Greenprint for Silicon Valley, provided growth strategy that created the Silicon Valley Institute for Regional Studies, and left a strong record of cross-jurisdictional collaboration. DiGiorgio also was instrumental in developing important regional studies that shaped Joint Venture’s work and brought his management skills to the annual State of the Valley conference as a keynote speaker, panelist, and presenter. Watch a video of Chris DiGiorgio on a venture capital panel at the 2014 State of the Valley conference.

Workforce study points to future for San Mateo County

San Mateo County faces significant challenges and opportunities to train workers and fill jobs created by economic growth and baby boomer retirements in the years ahead, according to a comprehensive new study on Peninsula workforce trends issued by the Silicon Valley Institute for Regional Studies, an arm of Joint Venture.

Commissioned by the San Mateo County Economic Development Association (SAMCEDA), the report presents extensive data and offers strategies for county leaders, private industry, community colleges and workforce boards to prepare students and workers to succeed in the workforce and to help employers find skilled workers.

Download the study.

Joint Venture anchors alternative fuel vehicle project
Joint Venture is among the partners for Santa Clara County’s “Driving to Net Zero: Decarbonizing Transportation in Silicon Valley” project, which was recently awarded a $550,000 grant from the California Strategic Growth Council for an innovative regional alternative fuel vehicle (AFV) planning effort.

This effort, which includes elements of policy, codes and permitting, technical and cost issues, public-private partnerships and coordination of AFV infrastructure, will be a catalyst for growth in this sector locally and serve as a model for other regions throughout the state and country. Joint Venture’s Smart Energy Enterprise Development Zone (SEEDZ) initiative will collaborate with the county and serve as a project partner for several research, outreach and engagement components of the effort, including private sector/business community input processes.

Edith Ramirez of Morgan Hill is new EDA chair
Edith Ramirez, principal planner/economic development manager for the City of Morgan Hill, will chair the Silicon Valley Economic Development Alliance for 2014-15. She succeeds Terrence Grindall, profiled in this month's newsletter. Edith has 18 years of experience in economic development, community affairs, business and local government, including three years in Morgan Hill and over 10 years in San Jose's Redevelopment Agency.

Her focus as chair will be to continue to strengthen relationships among cities, build capacity for economic development professionals and advance regional efforts. Thomas Fehrenbach, economic development manager of Palo Alto, is now chair-elect. Silicon Valley EDA provides a “one-stop concierge" service for businesses and organizations to connect with economic development professionals in Silicon Valley for information and resources. Twenty-three jurisdictions across four counties are members of the Silicon Valley EDA, including new members San Mateo and South San Francisco. Learn more about Silicon Valley EDA.

Our July Spotlight

TERRENCE GRINDALL

City of Newark

A bowling ball-sized chunk of crystallized salt perches like a giant piece of rock candy on a corner of Terrence Grindall’s desk in his office at Newark City Hall, a memento from one of the city’s oldest and best known companies, Cargill.

Fifty years ago, the company then known as Leslie Salt was Newark’s largest private employer and the largest landowner in the Bay Area, with 26,000 acres of salt ponds producing one million tons of salt annually.

But things have changed, says Grindall, Newark’s assistant city manager and community development director and outgoing chair of the Silicon Valley Economic Development Alliance, an arm of Joint Venture.

Read Terrence’s profile.

Article of the Month Declaration of Independence July 4, 1776
In observance of our nation’s 238th birthday this month, we present the document by our founding fathers that severed the 13 colonies from British rule and proclaimed the “Right of the People” to establish a new independent government.

Drafted by Thomas Jefferson, he and 55 other men ratified the script at the Continental Congress in Philadelphia. “When in the course of human events,” it began, “it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Read the original transcript of the Declaration of Independence.

July on “Inside Silicon Valley”

Thomas Jefferson’s view of our country on its 238th birthday and how technology is improving our commuting by transit are among this month’s topics on Joint Venture’s weekly public affairs radio program, “Inside Silicon Valley.”

Scheduled guests include historian Clay Jenkinson in the persona of Jefferson (July 4 & 6), Balaji Prabhakar, CEO of Urban Engines (July 11 & 13).