Evan Brown serves because the Government Director of EDGE (Financial Improvement Development and Enlargement) on the Oklahoma Division of Commerce. With earlier roles as Deputy Secretary of State and Deputy Director of Enterprise Improvement and Legislative Director on the Division of Commerce, Evan brings a wealth of expertise in public service and financial technique. At EDGE, he leads initiatives to drive enterprise progress and increase financial alternatives statewide, with a powerful emphasis on attracting expertise corporations to Oklahoma.
Evan has helped advance Oklahoma’s place as a aggressive hub for tech funding—highlighted by Google’s current land buy for a future knowledge heart, a key milestone within the state’s ongoing push to draw innovation and high-tech business progress.
Let’s begin with the large information—Google has acquired land in Stillwater, Oklahoma for a future knowledge heart campus. Are you able to inform us how this mission got here to life and what it means for the native and state economic system?
Google has referred to as Oklahoma house for over a decade, investing $4.4 billion in its knowledge heart at MidAmerica Industrial Park in Pryor, Oklahoma. The corporate has been a unbelievable associate with the state, each using tons of of Oklahomans and giving again to the local people the place it’s positioned. Google has additionally continued to put money into STEM training by awarding grants to varsities and different organizations, which additionally helps guarantee a gentle workforce pipeline for years to come back.
Oklahoma was particularly named as a beneficiary of the $20 billion overseas funding geared toward boosting AI and cloud expertise. What makes Oklahoma such a strategic location for this sort of improvement?
Oklahoma’s central location, inexpensive vitality prices and dedication to being essentially the most business-friendly state within the nation make it good for any vital funding. Our state is all the time open for enterprise, providing incentives and state-of-the-art infrastructure for brand new and increasing corporations. Companies solely have to name us, and we are going to present them precisely why Oklahoma is the fitting state for them to develop or increase.
In 2023, Oklahoma noticed 71 bulletins for brand new and increasing corporations. What tendencies are you seeing within the kinds of companies selecting Oklahoma, and what’s driving this momentum?
Not solely is Oklahoma the proper location for brand new expertise corporations, however it’s also turning into a hub for nationwide protection. Now we have 5 army installations that the Division of Protection continues to put money into, and our workforce can also be engaged on a number of protection manufacturing tasks that might carry greater than 1,000 jobs and $1 billion in funding. Now we have Lengthy Wave, an Oklahoma Metropolis-based firm, which was lately awarded a subcontract to assist develop the Navy’s new plane. The contract is for tons of of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} over six years, and they’re including 150 new jobs. We’re additionally taking steps to onshore vital mineral manufacturing within the U.S., lowering the nation’s dependence on different international locations. In Stillwater, we’ve USA Uncommon Earth, America’s first uncommon earth metallic manufacturing facility. They produced their first batch of magnets earlier this 12 months. There’s additionally Stardust Energy, a lithium refining firm, that broke floor on a $1.2 billion refinery in Muskogee earlier this 12 months.
Google’s resolution displays confidence in Oklahoma’s infrastructure. May you elaborate on what makes the state’s infrastructure notably well-suited for large-scale knowledge facilities?
All of it comes right down to our inexpensive vitality and business-friendly insurance policies. Knowledge facilities require a considerable amount of vitality, and proper now, we produce 60% extra vitality than we eat in Oklahoma. Communities even have the power to work instantly with these corporations to give you designated energy technology for knowledge heart improvement or different tasks.
With vitality prices almost 20% beneath the nationwide common and a #1 rating from CNBC for value of doing enterprise, Oklahoma is clearly aggressive. How are you leveraging these strengths in your financial improvement technique?
In Oklahoma, we produce 60% extra vitality than we eat, and that’s an enormous benefit when recruiting knowledge facilities or different comparable high-energy-consuming companies. Our grid is dependable as a result of we’re members of the Southwest Energy Pull, so we don’t expertise the rolling blackouts you see in some components of the nation. Our aim is to be essentially the most business-friendly state within the nation. We’re centrally positioned, we’ve the furthest inland port within the nation, state management is dedicated to slicing crimson tape, we’ve inexpensive vitality, and we provide direct entry to state management.
The SITES Program has been instrumental in figuring out industrial and mega websites throughout the state. How does this program work, and the way has it helped appeal to tasks like Google’s?
SITES stands for Supporting Industrial Transformation and Financial Success. It’s our manner of partnering with communities throughout the state to proactively deal with infrastructure wants to satisfy the demand of current companies and firms seeking to set up operations in Oklahoma. Communities can apply if they’ve a web site with infrastructure wants, and if chosen, we associate with the group to assist cowl a number of the prices of these enhancements. This reveals corporations seeking to increase or transfer to Oklahoma that the state is dedicated to having a web site prepared for them to get operations up and working as rapidly as potential. It additionally reveals Oklahoma communities that the state is dedicated to investing of their group and making ready them for financial progress. It’s like whenever you’re looking for a brand new house. We would like the enterprise to see its potential spot, fall in love with the location and group, and be enthusiastic about transferring in.
How is Oklahoma making ready its expertise pipeline—particularly in areas like tech and superior manufacturing—to satisfy the calls for of those new investments?
We’re dedicated to making sure each pupil who graduates highschool is college-ready or career-ready. Now we have colleges just like the Aviation Academy in Norman, the place excessive schoolers can work in the direction of their pilot license or technical certificates in aviation upkeep. We’re taking steps to increase internships and apprenticeship applications whereas additionally constructing partnerships between colleges and companies. Oklahoma has a terrific CareerTech system, which helps corporations perceive the abilities they want and incorporates that data within the classroom.
Stillwater’s collaboration with a number of native companions was important to securing this mission. What classes can different cities or states be taught from this profitable public-private partnership?
We perceive the worth of private and non-private partnerships. Financial improvement just isn’t accomplished in a silo. It’s not state or group; it’s state partnering with communities to grasp their wants and wishes for progress. We should deliberately put money into sturdy relationships throughout our state by means of elected officers and group companions to make sure we totally perceive the belongings. If we’re out pitching to an organization that Oklahoma is the place to be, we’ve to grasp all of our belongings so we can assist join a enterprise to the group that most closely fits their wants.
How do you see this Google funding shaping the way forward for financial improvement in Oklahoma? May it pave the best way for comparable tech-focused initiatives or corporations to observe?
We perceive that the free market creates jobs, not the federal government. We don’t need to put our thumb on the dimensions and choose winners and losers. Due to our business-friendly insurance policies and benefits in vitality and different areas, we’ve created an setting the place entrepreneurs and companies can thrive. We get weekly calls from knowledge facilities, uncommon earth companies, and different tech-focused corporations excited by Oklahoma and probably discovering a group associate that will greatest match their wants.
Trying forward, what’s your imaginative and prescient for Oklahoma’s function within the nationwide economic system, particularly as AI, cloud computing, and digital infrastructure proceed to develop?
Governor Kevin Stitt all the time says he needs to take Oklahoma to the world and produce the world again to Oklahoma. In 2024 alone, our workforce hosted 19 consulate representatives, two ambassadors, and a Crown Prince. We coordinated eight worldwide outbound missions to international locations like South Korea and Japan and assisted with six worldwide MOU agreements. We’re working to construct relationships instantly between Oklahoma and different international locations.