Evan Brown serves because the Govt Director of EDGE (Financial Growth Progress and Enlargement) on the Oklahoma Division of Commerce. With earlier roles as Deputy Secretary of State and Deputy Director of Enterprise Growth 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 know-how firms 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 information middle, a key milestone within the state’s ongoing push to draw innovation and high-tech trade progress.
Let’s begin with the large information—Google has acquired land in Stillwater, Oklahoma for a future information middle campus. Are you able to inform us how this undertaking got here to life and what it means for the native and state economic system?
Google has known as Oklahoma residence for over a decade, investing $4.4 billion in its information middle at MidAmerica Industrial Park in Pryor, Oklahoma. The corporate has been a implausible associate with the state, each using a whole lot of Oklahomans and giving again to the area people the place it’s positioned. Google has additionally continued to spend money on STEM training by awarding grants to varsities and different organizations, which additionally helps guarantee a gentle workforce pipeline for years to return.
Oklahoma was particularly named as a beneficiary of the $20 billion overseas funding aimed toward boosting AI and cloud know-how. What makes Oklahoma such a strategic location for this sort of growth?
Oklahoma’s central location, inexpensive vitality prices and dedication to being essentially the most business-friendly state within the nation make it excellent for any vital funding. Our state is at all times open for enterprise, providing incentives and state-of-the-art infrastructure for brand new and increasing firms. Companies solely have to name us, and we’ll present them precisely why Oklahoma is the suitable state for them to develop or increase.
In 2023, Oklahoma noticed 71 bulletins for brand new and increasing firms. What tendencies are you seeing within the kinds of companies selecting Oklahoma, and what’s driving this momentum?
Not solely is Oklahoma the right location for brand new know-how firms, however additionally it is turning into a hub for nationwide protection. We now have 5 navy installations that the Division of Protection continues to spend money on, and our group can be engaged on a number of protection manufacturing initiatives that might deliver greater than 1,000 jobs and $1 billion in funding. We now 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 a whole lot of thousands and thousands of {dollars} over six years, and they’re including 150 new jobs. We’re additionally taking steps to onshore essential mineral manufacturing within the U.S., decreasing the nation’s dependence on different international locations. In Stillwater, we’ve got USA Uncommon Earth, America’s first uncommon earth metallic manufacturing facility. They produced their first batch of magnets earlier this yr. There’s additionally Stardust Energy, a lithium refining firm, that broke floor on a $1.2 billion refinery in Muskogee earlier this yr.
Google’s determination displays confidence in Oklahoma’s infrastructure. Might you elaborate on what makes the state’s infrastructure significantly well-suited for large-scale information facilities?
All of it comes right down to our inexpensive vitality and business-friendly insurance policies. Information facilities require a considerable amount of vitality, and proper now, we produce 60% extra vitality than we devour in Oklahoma. Communities even have the power to work immediately with these firms to provide you with designated energy era for information middle growth or different initiatives.
With vitality prices practically 20% under the nationwide common and a #1 rating from CNBC for price of doing enterprise, Oklahoma is clearly aggressive. How are you leveraging these strengths in your financial growth technique?
In Oklahoma, we produce 60% extra vitality than we devour, and that’s an enormous benefit when recruiting information 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 purpose is to be essentially the most business-friendly state within the nation. We’re centrally positioned, we’ve got the furthest inland port within the nation, state management is dedicated to chopping pink tape, we’ve got 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 initiatives like Google’s?
SITES stands for Supporting Industrial Transformation and Financial Success. It’s our means of partnering with communities throughout the state to proactively tackle infrastructure wants to fulfill the demand of present companies and corporations seeking to set up operations in Oklahoma. Communities can apply if they’ve a website with infrastructure wants, and if chosen, we associate with the neighborhood to assist cowl a number of the prices of these enhancements. This exhibits firms seeking to increase or transfer to Oklahoma that the state is dedicated to having a website prepared for them to get operations up and working as rapidly as doable. It additionally exhibits Oklahoma communities that the state is dedicated to investing of their neighborhood and making ready them for financial progress. It’s like whenever you’re searching for a brand new residence. We wish the enterprise to see its potential spot, fall in love with the location and neighborhood, and be enthusiastic about transferring in.
How is Oklahoma making ready its expertise pipeline—particularly in areas like tech and superior manufacturing—to fulfill the calls for of those new investments?
We’re dedicated to making sure each scholar who graduates highschool is college-ready or career-ready. We now have colleges just like the Aviation Academy in Norman, the place excessive schoolers can work in direction of their pilot license or technical certificates in aviation upkeep. We’re taking steps to increase internships and apprenticeship packages whereas additionally constructing partnerships between colleges and companies. Oklahoma has a terrific CareerTech system, which helps firms perceive the talents they want and incorporates that data within the classroom.
Stillwater’s collaboration with a number of native companions was important to securing this undertaking. 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 growth just isn’t achieved in a silo. It’s not state or neighborhood; it’s state partnering with communities to grasp their wants and needs for progress. We should deliberately spend money on robust relationships throughout our state by elected officers and neighborhood 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 got to grasp all of our belongings so we may help join a enterprise to the neighborhood that most closely fits their wants.
How do you see this Google funding shaping the way forward for financial growth in Oklahoma? Might it pave the way in which for comparable tech-focused initiatives or firms to comply with?
We perceive that the free market creates jobs, not the federal government. We don’t wish to put our thumb on the dimensions and decide 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 information facilities, uncommon earth companies, and different tech-focused firms keen on Oklahoma and probably discovering a neighborhood associate that will finest match their wants.
Wanting 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 at all times says he desires to take Oklahoma to the world and convey the world again to Oklahoma. In 2024 alone, our group 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 immediately between Oklahoma and different international locations.
