Welcome to the inaugural issue of REGION, the official publication of Greater New Orleans, Inc.! As we kick off the new year (and new decade!), I think it makes sense to thank all of our partners, and recap 2019.
The theme of 2019 was clearly “jobs.” GNO, Inc. and partners made significant progress in landing jobs, strategizing for more jobs, and — importantly — training Greater New Orleanians for these jobs.
Following a national search, EY established a N.E.A.T. (National Executive Assistance Team) Center on Poydras Street, employing 200. Ampirical announced 400 engineering jobs at its new headquarters in St. Tammany. Bernhard determined that its national headquarters will be in Jefferson, with 250. London-based Testronic is bringing 150 video game jobs to New Orleans. Wins like this — totaling over 1,650 direct jobs in 2019 — combined with previous successes like DXC Technology and Globalstar, have spurred GNO, Inc. to develop the “GNO Professional Jobs Plan” — a strategic campaign aggressively focused on bringing more professional jobs to Greater New Orleans.
Recognizing the importance of ensuring that locals are able to obtain these “GNO, Inc. Jobs” (34% above average pay), GNO, Inc. developed the demand-driven “GNOu” program. GNOu received historic validation in 2019, including:
• Amazon chose GNOu as the basis for making Louisiana the first US state for a full roll-out of its Cloud Computing degree
• Implementation of a German-style apprenticeship program in Mechatronics, featuring Laitram, Zatarain’s, Elmer; and, Delgado, Nunez and NTCC
• Grants from the Federal DOL, EDA, and DRA to scale GNOu
• The launch of gnocareerguide.org, to help students, teachers, and residents understand the jobs of the future, and how to get them
Other key wins included: the launching of the New Orleans Music Economy (NOME) initiative; continued international growth at MSY (London 6-days, Montreal); securing the first P3 infrastructure project for Louisiana; launching of the GNO Career Guide and GNOfuture Jobs Report; and the EVERLAB and Emerge conferences.
Looking forward, research for GNOfuture was the focus of 2019. The strategic plan for the next ten years of Greater New Orleans, GNOfuture is now nearly complete, laying out a road map for GNO, Inc.’s resource allocation and key tactics for 2020 – 2030. The goal is expressed in GNO, Inc.’s new mission statement: To create a region with a thriving economy, and an excellent quality of life, for everyone.
To cap off the year, Greater New Orleans was named “Major Market of the Year” (tied with Nashville).
Let us end 2019, and look to 2020, with a heartfelt “Thank you!” to the staff, board, investors and partners of GNO, Inc. and the region. We truly appreciate your extraordinary collaboration. Here’s to an outstanding next decade!
Michael Hecht
GNO, Inc. President & CEO