Upstate NY Tech Hub-OneRoc’s Dr. Joseph Stefko

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 Summary of this Episode

Guests

Major Topics Covered

    • Upstate New York’s Semiconductor Boom – Thanks to the CHIPS and Science Act, Buffalo, Rochester, and Syracuse are now at the center of a nationally recognized tech hub, securing federal funding to grow the semiconductor industry.
    • OneRoc’s Role in Regional Economic Development – The organization coordinates resources across Rochester’s nine-county region and has been instrumental in securing the tech hub designation, ensuring a unified economic strategy for upstate New York.
    • Monroe Community College’s Workforce Initiative – MCC is leading the Step Up Semiconductor Talent and Employer Partnership, a program aimed at training 5,000–8,000 skilled workers over the next five years to fill critical semiconductor industry jobs.
    • Focus on Workforce Diversity – The tech hub initiative prioritizes increasing representation of women and communities of color in the semiconductor workforce, ensuring economic opportunities are more inclusive and accessible.
    • Upstate New York’s Competitive Advantage – With committed investments, one in four U.S. semiconductor chips will be produced within 350 miles of upstate New York in the next decade, positioning the region as a global semiconductor leader.

Full Transcript of the Episode

Note: This is a generated transcript. Please excuse any typos.

Joanna Pasceri  00:00

We are back continuing our series on the upstate New York Tech Hub, a Buffalo Rochester and Syracuse collaboration that recently won a $40 million federal grant to fast-track this region as one of the country’s leaders in the semiconductor industry. Hi everybody. Welcome to From the Lobby with Jack O’Donnell. This podcast 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 at the mic today, we have Alec Lewis, our Vice President and Director of campaigns who is taking a deep dive into what this grant means to Buffalo Rochester and Syracuse. Alec special guest is Dr. Joseph Stefko, President and Chief Executive Officer of OneRoc, and they are talking about how this federal grant is accelerating the growth of the semiconductor industryin Rochester and across upstate New York.

Hi Alec and Joe, and thanks for joining us. 

Alec Lewis  01:08

Joe It’s great to have you on the podcast and welcome you from the lobby while I’m actually currently on the campaign trail, and you’ve been a tireless advocate for the Rochester business community. OneRoc describes itself as a collaborative and coordinated capacity building vehicle that’s driving economic growth and opportunity.

What role do you see one rock playing for the Rochester region? 

Dr. Joseph Stefko  01:31

So OneRoc is essentially serves as our Regional Economic Alliance here in the nine county Greater Rochester region. We were established in early 2019, to better coordinate and much more deeply resource the activities of a number of organizations in our regional economic development space. So we’ve been doing that for about five and a half years now. And increasingly, I would say, over the last two, two and a half years, we have begun to assume a little more of a leadership role around key regional economic initiatives and opportunities, one of which, of course, is our federal regional tech hub bid. So really proud to have served as one of the initial instigators of this effort, even before the CHIPS and Science Act was was passed by the federal government. But this effort to bring together Buffalo and Rochester and Syracuse to really create a bid that was, I think, uniquely compelling nationally and extraordinarily competitive when you think that this whole process started with, gosh, near 400 applications nationwide. The Phase One designations narrowed that down to 31 finalists and and our upstate New York corridor was one of a dozen to receive the first in the nation, phase two implementation funding. So we’re really excited about the road we’ve traveled together so far and and really looking forward to what’s next. 

Alec Lewis  02:50

Well, that’s awesome to hear. And let’s get into Rochester role in the tech hub overall. So Monroe Community College will lead the Step Up Semiconductor Talent and Employer Partnership, which is meant to be a unified front door for employers across upstate New York to access semiconductor talent.

Can you speak to the role that you feel MCC and the Rochester region is poised to play in advancing the goals of what really is a broad and regional tech hub across upstate New York that’s meant to have a synchronized and collaborative approach across not only buffalo Rochester and Syracuse, but throughout upstate New York? 

Dr. Joseph Stefko  03:25

Yeah,sure. No, happy to talk about that. And as I’m sure my colleagues are sharing elsewhere in the podcast, right this, this is one of a portfolio of three critically important component projects that formed form the foundation for the smart High Court or tech hub strategy. Look, it’s no it’s not going to come as a surprise to any of your listeners, the talent pinch that is being faced, and not just in our region, but across the country. Right? We’ve gone through some pretty profound labor force transition, even going back to pre-pandemic but But COVID Certainly expedited that within a rapidly growing space like the semiconductor and related supply chain sector, that pinch is even more acute. So if we’re going to truly build on the momentum that we’ve seen over the last number of years here, not just in upstate New York, but across the broader New York statewide semiconductor ecosystem, we’ve got to be first in innovating and addressing those talent strategy needs.

So our step up a component project within the tech hub portfolio, as you said, is being led by Monroe Community College here in Rochester, but not being led exclusively for Rochester or exclusively for MCC. Rather, MCC is a component lead that will be essentially the lead convener for this initiative across the New York Smart Eye Corridor, so across that that Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Ithaca corridor, essentially what the Step Up initiative boils down to is, as you mentioned, Alan, creating a coordinated single front door for employers really being intentional and direct and connecting trained talent to those opportunities. Years, and then leveraging a transformational investment that New York State has advanced in this year’s approved budget, carving out a specific curriculum that will allow us to address directly address the skill needs, the skill gaps among technicians that not just semiconductor manufacturers and fabs, but they’re critical tier one and tier two suppliers are facing. So really trying to train up somewhere 5 to 8000 of those individuals, middle skill individuals, over the next five years, an emphasis on diversifying that workforce as well.

We are not as diverse as we could or should be. I’m so emphasizing getting women into the workforce, getting communities of color better represented in the workforce, to ensure that we’re not just training the talent, but being really intentional about plugging talent into those employers that are in desperate need of it. Through our network of tech hub chamber partners across the upstate corridor, we will have dedicated, essentially dedicated account managers, industry concierges to work with every conduct, every semiconductor firm and supply chain company to make sure that we’re finding, hiring and placing and retaining that talent. It’s, it’s, you know, it’s one of those pieces of the puzzle that all of the programs that comprise the tech hub strategy are critically important. This one is, I would say, kind of first among equals really need to get the workforce piece right if we’re truly going to capitalize on the growth opportunity that that’s ahead of this Coronavirus. 

Alec Lewis  06:31

So you mentioned workforce, and you mentioned women and communities of color. So when we think about the uniqueness and power of this truly regional consortium and collaboration that’s unprecedented in our region, along withthe economic impact of the federal government prioritizing semiconductor manufacturing and adjacent industries in Western New York and Central New York, what are your big picture hopes for what this tech hub can actually create forexpanded economic opportunity across upstate New York? 

Dr. Joseph Stefko  07:01

You know, look, this is semiconductors as as we, you know, we all learned a lot about supply chain that we didn’t know coming out of the pandemic, right? With computers that couldn’t run and and vehicles that were sitting on dealer lots because they didn’t have the final chips to to actually get in customers hands. Semiconductors are the lifeblood of the modern economy and will only, will only grow, you know, in terms of our dependence on them. Committed investments alone, this isn’t prospective investments, but on committed investments alone. 10 years from now, one in four domestically made semiconductor chips will be manufactured within 350, miles of where we’re sitting right now. So this, this region, the substant New York Corridor, has an incredible geographic, geographic advantage over other parts of the country, and it’s one that through the tech hub, we have an opportunity to make sure we’re truly optimizing that we’re taking full, full advantage of. And so the tech hub is one piece of a broader puzzle. The state has made significant and generational investments over the last 15 or 20 years to position New York as the place to be a true a truly global leader in a world class semiconductor ecosystem.

And so I think this becomes a critically the tech hub investments become a critically important programmatic level to ensure that we are addressing remaining gaps and being as globally competitive as we can to make sure that the next generation of semiconductors are manufactured here. The suppliers that feed that chain are located here, and the workers that they are employing live here, recreate here, and are building their futures here. So in a very real way, this this creates generational opportunity for communities that if you think about the goal of the regional tech hub program, at its core, it is to invest in communities that maybe economically, haven’t performed as well and in a lot of ways have been left behind for a generation or two, but that have the core economic and innovation assets to build the economy of tomorrow. And I think by definition, that describes this part of part of the United States, and that’s why we’re so bullish on on how we can leverage this program.  

Alec Lewis  09:09

Well, Joe, I want to thank you so much for joining us today from the lobby and for laying out all these exciting opportunities that we have here in upstate New York to grow the economy. And while I get back to the campaign trail, there’s no doubt that we’re on a path to prosperity with your leadership and the business community that continues to advocate for our region.

So once again, Joe, thank you so much for joining us, and I’ll hand it off to Joanna to close out our program. 

Joanna Pasceri  09:32

Thank you Alec and Joe for some great insight there and those exciting opportunities that are coming with this new tech hub. And if you like to know more about OneRoc, and you want to stay updated with all its activities. Head to oneroc.com that’s O N, E, R, O, C.com, and stay up on what’s happening in politics from New York to DC. Sign up for our Monday morning memo. It’s sent right to your inbox. Subscribe on our website at odonnellsolutions.com that’s. odonnellsolutions.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.

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