The From the Lobby podcast features a behind-the-scenes look at politics and government from New York State to Washington, DC with Jack O’Donnell, an Albany insider and Managing Partner of O’Donnell and Associates, a top lobbying firm that helps clients all over the country cut through government red tape.
Don’t be stuck on the sidelines. Get a front-row seat to what’s happening in politics with Jack! From the issues that affect taxpayers and business owners to the history of the budget process in New York, Jack has the knowledge and depth of experience to cut through the rhetoric and tell you what’s really going on.
Summary of this Episode
Guests
- Joanne Pasceri: Director of Communications at O’Donnell and Associates
- Alec Lewis: Vice President and Director of Campaigns at O’Donnell and Associates.
- Dottie Gallagher: President and CEO of the Buffalo Niagara Partnership
Major Topics Covered
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- The Buffalo Niagara region, along with Rochester and Syracuse, secured a $40 million federal tech grant to become one of the country’s leaders in the semiconductor industry.
- The region, known as the New York Smart Eye Corridor, will play a significant role in onshoring chip manufacturing, aiming to increase domestic production from 1% to 25% within 10 years.
- The collaborative effort across the corridor has each city leading different projects under the federal tech hub designation, with the University of Buffalo leading the supply chain activation network.
- The SCAN project involves analyzing local manufacturers to identify those that can join or pivot into the semiconductor supply chain, with efforts to increase supply chain diversity.
- The regional collaboration and governance structure are seen as key to effectively competing and lifting the economy for everyone in the region, focusing on equity and inclusion.
Full Transcript of the Episode
Note: This is a generated transcript. Please excuse any typos.
Joanna Pasceri 00:00
Big economic news for Upstate New York, Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse have secured a $40 million federal tech grant, making the region one of the country’s leaders in the semiconductor industry. Hi everybody. Welcome, to From the lobby with Jack O’Donnell, a podcast that gives listeners an inside look at New York’s political and economic landscape with Jack, managing partner of O’Donnell and Associates, a Top New York lobbying firm. I’m Joanna Pasceri, Director of Communications at O’Donnell and Associates, we are continuing our focus on New York’s business community.
And at the mic is our Alec Lewis, Vice President and Director of campaigns, Alec leads our growing campaigns and advocacy practice, keeping a keen eye on what’s driving communities across the state. Alec has a special guest Dottie Gallagher, President and CEO of the Buffalo Niagara partnership, and they are talking about the White House announcement that the Thruway corridor between Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse, is now designated one of 12 regional technology hubs, and along with that $40 million dollars. The designation unlocks up to $8 million in matching funds from the state to accelerate further the growth of the semiconductor industry.
Hi Alec and Dottie and welcome to the podcast.
Dottie Gallagher 01:22
Great to be here.
Alec Lewis 01:23
Thank you, Joanna. And Dottie. welcome to the podcast. It’s wonderful to have you on the podcast today. You’ve been a tireless advocate for the Buffalo business community now, prior to joining the partnership, you were president and CEO of visit Buffalo Niagara, the region’s tourism promotion bureau. You also spent nearly 15 years with the Buffalo News and served as a member of their executive management team, and are an active member of many Buffalo community boards. You clearly have a heart to serve the Buffalo community. So Dottie, what has your career journey meant to you?
Dottie Gallagher 01:53
Well, I can’t think of a better career to have than to be involved in the community you love in various dimensions, I feel like I’ve just had a very privileged opportunity to have a front seat to everything that’s been happening in Buffalo over the past 30 plus years.
Alec Lewis 02:08
So let’s get into Buffalo’s role in this tech hub. The University of Buffalo will lead the supply chain activation network for scan project to build up the supply chain network for the semiconductor industry, not just in Buffalo, but in Rochester and Syracuse as well, through both existing and new companies, by scaling manufacturing support, this is a $9 million initiative over five years.
Can you speak to the role that you feel Buffalo is poised to play in advancing the goals of this regional tech hub that, again, includes not just Buffalo but Rochester and Syracuse? If it’s okay with you.
Dottie Gallagher 02:42
Alec, I’d like to just take a small step backwards. The tech hub designation, which we got was a competition from more than 400 communities across the country, and 32 or so were designated as a tech hub. So our region, the New York Smart Eye Corridor, was one of those regions designated, we were then able to apply for funding, and that’s the funding you’re talking about. And we’re one of fewer than a dozen that actually got an award, and the only one who got an award in the semiconductor space. So people always ask me this, what does New York Smart Eye Corridor tech hub stand for? And it’s the New York Semiconductor Manufacturing and Research Technology Innovation Corridor. It’s a mouthful, but that’s that’s what it stands for. And when you talk about Buffalo’s role, this has really been an effort designed completely looking at, not at Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, but really looking at the region in its entirety, of how we can truly be a leader in semiconductor manufacturing for the United States.
So right now, only 1% of all chips that are used domestically are produced in the United States. You may have heard and may have experienced post-pandemic when we couldn’t get new cars, and you know, all of that was because of a lack of chip manufacturing that was all overseas. So now this effort is really about on shoring for economic and and also national security and, and it’s a very important piece of what we’re doing. So at this point, as I said, 1% are produced domestically.
The deal that was announced in Syracuse for micron, it will represent about 12% of all will be domestically produced chips, but within 350 miles of the New York Smart Eye Corridor, within the next 10 years, 25% of all chips will be produced in our region. That is, and that goes from Intel all the way through to Ithaca, basically, and Albany, if you if you look at that, we will be a powerhouse innovator in this space for the country, in one of the most important key technology areas identified by the federal government. So when you talk about Buffalo’s role, I sort of bristle a little bit, because we are really working in complete collaboration and partnership. So that’s the background. The scan project is is the is the supply chain project of our federal tech hub designation application.
There’s also a innovation application, there’s also a workforce application, all of which were accepted by the federal government. And we also have a governance application, which sets up an innovation office, which really makes sure that the corridor is all together. So every one of our partners in Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse, is leading one of those projects for the entire corridor. And UB did agree to be the leader of the supply chain or scan project, which is really exciting, which is what you’re talking about. And they will lead that, not only for Buffalo, but for Rochester and Syracuse as well. So everything that we’re doing is in complete partnership across the corridor.
Alec Lewis 05:46
For our listener’s benefit. A lot of these words and concepts may seem a little bit over their heads in terms of some of these future technologies that are actually right here, right now and driving the American economy.
Can you talk a little bit more about what you view the scan project to ultimately contribute to in terms of the broader goals of this tech hub?
Dottie Gallagher 06:06
Absolutely so when we look at the amazing opportunity that you know Intel is providing in Ohio, micron is providing in Syracuse, menlin Micro Global Foundries, these big semiconductor production going from basically zero production domestically to 25% of domestic production. You can imagine all the parts and pieces that it will take to actually build out these chips. And chips are produced in something called a fab. And to give your listeners a sense, a fab. One fab is a size of four football fields, and micron is building four of them in Syracuse. It’s just a tremendous volume. It’s hard to sort of wrap your head around. But scan is really about how do we look at not just new manufacturers that will come into the region, but to really look at who is here and who is in the business right now, who is supplying the semiconductor business, but more importantly, what manufacturers have the opportunity to supply so UB is heading up, along with all of our partners, a real analysis of all the manufacturers in our region that may either be a part of the supply chain currently or are doing something that may qualify them to pivot and grow into the supply chain.
So what do I mean? They’re looking at chemicals that certain manufacturers are using that are used in semiconductors. They’re looking at the types of equipment and machinery that certain companies have that might be applicable to some of the work that can be done in semiconductor manufacturing. And that analysis of who might be, who might be proximate to the supply chain about 400 businesses so far that we’ve identified within the footprint, there’s a whole effort to reach out to those businesses proactively.
And our partners at invest Buffalo Niagara will be doing that. That’s part of their role, reaching out to the companies in our market, and Rochester GRE in their market, and center state CEO in their market, to talk to these companies and say, Hey, we think you may have proximity to supply chain for this huge opportunity. Are you interested in pursuing that? And if they say yes, then we have a technical assistance provided through in Buffalo insight consulting, through the manufacturing extension extension partnerships that will allow those companies to explore their opportunity to grow with this really, once in a generation, new industry that is going to be in our region.
Alec Lewis 08:24
And Dottie, to your credit, you made it a point with me to emphasize that this is not just a Buffalo initiative or Rochester or Syracuse initiative. This is truly a regional consortium and collaboration that’s unprecedented, not just in Buffalo Rochester and Syracuse, but across upstate New York. So could you speak to the economic impact in your mind of the federal government prioritizing not only semiconductor manufacturing and this adjacent industries across upstate, but really fundamentally for our communities? What are your hopes for how the tech hub can create economic opportunity across upstate New York?
Dottie Gallagher 08:57
Well, it’s a great question. You know, when we built out the projects that we applied to get the funding for. What we looked for were gaps in the marketplace. We didn’t say, Oh, we’re going to take $40 million and build a building. We looked at our region and said, where do we need help? And so, you know, understanding what scan is, and really saying, we want to make sure that local manufacturers have the opportunity to participate, Legacy manufacturers that have lived in our community and worked in our community for all these years. That was really one of the strategies and the scan program was, how do we address that gap? We have similar efforts in workforce and innovation as I mentioned, but each and every one of those projects has an equity goal associated with.
So, for example, in supply chain, we want to increase supply chain diversity to this industry from 2% to 20% so we really see this as an opportunity to lift the economics for everybody who lives in this region. This is not something that we’re importing into the region as much as it is. How do we take the people who are living here, who are working here, who are part of our community and really lift up, lift up our entire communities by investing in that opportunity? So I think equity is a huge lens that we’re looking at this through that’s incredibly positive. The other thing I’d say, in terms of economic impact, my colleagues, Joe Steph CO at One Rock, and Ben and Rob Simpson at Center State CEO, we also see this as just a new way of working together around all economic opportunity, and this framework and the governance structure is really allowing us to do that. So instead of competing regionally, we’re saying, hey, we’re much stronger when we compete together. And this is a real way of sort of a blue ocean opportunity where we can really build something that will be really meaningful, that we hope have, you know, follow-on benefits as as we move forward.
A lot a lot of people don’t realize this, but about 77,000 people commute each day on the thruway among our cities to go to work. So we we’re trying to break through that sortof provincialism and say, you know, how can we really compete as a region? When you look at the Dallas metroplex, or you look at Austin or even Los Angeles, these the geographies of those cities are huge. And I think we are looking at ourselves as one region that will allow us to really much more effectively compete. And certainly our application for designation and then getting funding proves that we have a very compelling offer that we that we can make to compete with the rest of the country.
Alec Lewis 11:25
Well, Dottie, thank you so much for laying that out for our listeners. We are so excited here at O’Donnell and Associates to be partnering with you as well and hopefully building a better future for all upstate New Yorkers. And we are so thankful and grateful for your leadership. And let me transition to Joanna now to close out our program.
Joanna Pasceri 11:42
All right, Alec, thank you and Dottie for some great insight on this exciting opportunity with the new tech hub. You can stay updated with all Buffalo Niagara partnership activities at the partnership.org and stay up on what’s happening in politics from New York to DC. Sign up for our Monday morning memo sent right to your inbox. Subscribe on our website at O’Donnell solutions.com that’s O’Donnell solutions.com and for daily updates, follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn, X and threads at O’Donnell and Associates. Thanks for listening, everyone. We’ll be back from the lobby with Jack O’Donnell.
