By CLA-OC and Tiffany Kang, International Affairs Department of TEEMA
The CEO Leadership Alliance-Orange County (CLA-OC) is a business association formed by CEOs in California, USA. By promoting higher education and venture capital investments in ICT, biotechnology, and financial technology industry, CLA-OC aims to make Orange County a place which is favorable for sustainable business.
One of the primary goals of the alliance is to cultivate AI talents and develop the AI industry in the county.
Therefore, CLA-OC is looking for global partners to create opportunities for industrial cooperation.
During a meeting between CLA-OC and local Taiwanese ICT companies accompanied by Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Los Angeles (TECO-LA), TECOLA explained the current situation of the ICT industry in Taiwan. Both sides considered each other an ideal partner for collaboration in AI, information security and technology integration. CLA-OC also looks forward to deepening ties with Taiwanese industries in order to create a winwin situation. Through a referral from TECO-LA Director Mr. Luen-Jeng Liou, TEEMA Vice President Mr. Roger Liao and CLA-OC International Advisor Mr. Tim Tang had the first conference call on July 1, 2021. Afterward, Mr. Roger Liao, TEEMA Division Manager Mr. Sam Hsieh and CLA-OC President Mr. Mark Percy, Senior Vice President Ms. Jasmine Pachnanda had an online meeting on August 20 to present the membership composition and services of TEEMA and CLA-OC, and discuss potential future cooperation. Both sides agreed to begin the partnership by exchanging information and opinions, and look forward to having faceto-face meetings for further exchanges in the future. The following is the introduction of CLA-OC.
CLA-OC: Working together to build a thriving Orange County for all.
The key to building vibrant communities lies in collaborating across sectors of our society to create new opportunities and solve persistent challenges. By convening the right people, the right business practices and the right resources, real positive change can result.
This is the approach being taken by the CEO Leadership Alliance -Orange County (CLA-OC) , a collaborative effort led by purposeful CEOs who believe that contributing to the community is not only a responsibility, but the right thing to do. Effective CEO leadership has been shown to be a primary best practice for communities in generating top talent, attractive employment opportunities, and high quality of life for their citizens.
About Orange County (OC)
Orange County, located in the state of California in the USA, has a population of 3.3 million, is an economic powerhouse. Orange County's gross regional product (GRP) was $309 billion in 2019, making the region among the most productive in Southern California. It is the 5th most educated county in the United States, and an industry leader in medical device manufacturing, gaming, electric vehicles and healthcare.
It has long been seen as a perfect destination to set up business, have a career and raise a family, with some of the nation's lowest crime rates, highest incomes, and best educational institutions. It remains highly attractive to both young and more established families. Many of the cities in Orange County such as Irvine, Huntington Beach, Garden Grove, Anaheim, and Santa Ana all make WalletHub's recent list of The Best Places to Raise a Family, due in large part to exceptional scores in Health & Safety, which outweighed generally low affordability.
Orange County has the nation's fourth largest international population with approximately 949,825 foreign-born residents and is home to 2.1 percent of the
nation's international population and 8.9 percent of the state's international population.
A Unique Flywheel Strategy
Understanding the ripple effect that can result from a regional focus on innovation, CLA-OC leaders developed a unique flywheel strategy that has four focus areas to build synergies for enhanced economic and community wellbeing.
Education: Creating career pathways for students to the jobs of the future with the skills to land well paying positions, along with creating a local evergreen talent pool.
Talent: Developing, attracting and retaining talent with a vibrant business community that motivates students and employees to stay in Orange County.
Branding: Showcasing the dynamic and diverse offerings in Orange County for quality of work and life through our inclusive and opportunity-rich communities.
Innovation Investment: Expanding our ecosystem of innovation to change the equation for start-ups through venture funding and by connecting entrepreneurs and
CEOs.
Focus on Innovation
As purposeful leaders, CLA-OC's mission is to collaborate to cultivate Orange County into a premier, inclusive, innovation talent hub. Its organizational priorities include forging a better jobs strategy for the county, which includes growth in 'innovation sector' jobs, growth in the talent to fill those jobs, and cultivating a workforce of diverse viewpoints and skill sets. Through this strategy, the group hopes to lessen social problems and promote a thriving local economy and environment for the region.
These initiatives are led by CEOs from some of the region's most prominent public and private companies who are committed to leading change. These companies include Edwards Lifesciences, Johnson & Johnson, Ernst & Young, City of Hope Orange County, Pacific Life, PIMCO, Skyworks, Golden State Foods, Ingram Micro, and a host of others working strategically to help others succeed.
The talented leadership from such diverse business sectors-individuals who are purposeful and passionate about Orange County's community and future - have come together under CLA-OC to be catalysts and collaborators to move the county forward around a common vision.
Like many regions in the world, Orange County faces important challenges in creating and sustaining jobs that enable people to live a quality life in an expensive region while improving their health, longevity and overall wellbeing.
In addition, better jobs can help address social problems.
Innovation sector jobs typically accompany a pay scale that can generate a 5-1 multiplier, in other words the economic impact of each new high-paying innovation job results in additional executive and service sector employment in the region. Moreover, an innovation economy can attract investment from around the country and the world.
Growing and Retaining Local Talent
When it comes to talent, the Southern California region is the largest producer of STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Math) Ph.D.s and second in STEM undergraduates in the U.S., but the majority leave to take jobs in Silicon Valley or other tech hubs. At the same time, the lack of deep talent pools can be seen as a barrier for many OC companies to grow here. Building a successful innovation hub, therefore, depends on significantly increasing local innovation capital to provide good jobs that keep this talent in OC.
To that end, CLA-OC helped establish and spin off the SC Master Fund. A fund of funds, the Master Fund invests in promising local venture capital funds that will in turn invest in early-stage high-potential innovation companies based in and around Orange County.
Funded VCs and portfolio companies will leverage the advantages of our location, expertise, talent pool, and distinctive corporate know-how in sectors such as property technology, medical devices, fintech, gaming, artificial intelligence, and enterprise software. In 2021 the SC Master Fund is expected to reach $60M in Assets Under Management, with a goal of $500 AUM in the next several years. The SC Master Fund has established its own Board of Directors and Investment Committee, and has a second general partnership staffed and operating. Two Venture Capital firms are part of its portfolio, with more than a dozen additional firms in the evaluation stage.
CLA-OC's network has also helped support funding mechanisms for very early-stage AI and emerging technology startups, with a focus on diverse and underrepresented founders. This focus has led to the launch of Operate, which funds and supports these startups.
The business-education collaboration has spawned several unique pilot programs focused specifically on early talent, with the objective of promoting jobs and a quality future for all students in OC. Already, CLA-OC's leadership has helped raise $200K to develop and launch work-based learning (WBL) pilot efforts to create innovative and systematic approaches to career exploration experiences.
Career Exploration Experiences (CEE)
So far this year, Career Exploration Experiences have been introduced in a variety of forms, highlighted by mentorships and internships in healthcare, business, tech, and finance, for some 200 underserved students. Key partners in this effort were CHOC, UCI, and PIMCO, working with Tustin Unified School District, Anaheim Union High School District, and the Samueli Academy as the host of these high school-level career exploration experiences.
Among the other programs launched this year include the Data Analytics Talent Bridge pilot, a partnership with tech firm Alteryx, the North Orange County Community College District and Coast Community College District to create a career pathway certificate program for students in Business, Information and Communications Technologies, and Computer Science.
Another program involved pairing Coastline College's Regional Occupational Program with local cybersecurity firm CISOShare. The Cybersecurity Talent Bridge rolled out as a pilot program this year at the high school level, providing training and internship opportunities for some 20 students.
These modern youth apprenticeship programs around data analytics and cybersecurity are intended to scale to a broader population of K-12 and community college students, to sustain a systemic early focus and exposure to AI knowledge, skills and abilities.
CLA-OC is in the second successful year of the Orange Fellowship, a recent initiative accepting recent university graduates employed by local companies or organizations into a two-year leadership training program. Meeting quarterly the cohort has frequent interactions with CLAOC members, is involved and helps to solve community problems, and is designed to grow their professional and personal networks in OC.
Another shared initiative is to remove hunger as a barrier to learning, and to that end CLA-OC partners last year launched a Mobile Food service program pilot with Anaheim's Centralia Elementary School District. Despite the challenges of pandemic-related closures, the district program continued to supply meals to students, and this year served 6,194 summer meals. This successful program continues to serve Weekend Grocery Kits every Friday via its mobile food truck.
The three major food banks in the county have since united their efforts toward a shared purpose and resulted in the creation of the OC Hunger Alliance.
Promoting Innovation Investment and Regional Identity
CLA-OC identified a vision of Orange County as a toptier innovation economy with connected deep talent pools, mentors/advisors and world-class support services, fueled by abundant local capital.
The organization has established broad goals in partnership with the community to establish OC as a leading AI SuperHub by 2030, and plans to develop and launch an operating framework for an AI Center of Excellence. To help provide an ongoing scorecard of sorts for the region, CLA-OC has helped sponsor the Innovation Index together with Chapman University and UC Irvine, which benchmarks OC along with 22 other regions.
Established innovation ranking and benchmark to be updated annually.
The ongoing focus and accomplishments of CLA-OC are shared with its community through CLA-OC.org and EnvisionOC.org websites that help tell Orange County's unique story, resources and lifestyle advantages.
How To Get Involved in OC
For more information about establishing OC as your US presence, investing in the SC Master Fund or other investment opportunities in OC, and utilizing OC's deep talent pool, please send an email to CLA-OC President Mark Percy at mpercy@claoc.org. Learn more at claoc.
org.
