facturing . “ I think our region ’ s specialization is as a supplier , not as a headquarters ,” Peckham says .
Lorie Symon is president and CEO of Aerometals , a helicopter and aircraft parts manufacturer based in El Dorado Hills . Asked if she sees Sacramento becoming an aerospace hub again or staying small but mighty , she points to the latter . “ I don ’ t see us attracting a large organization back in ,” Symon says . “ I think we ’ re going to continue to be the small but innovative , new products , new processes kind of deal .”
There remain pipelines locally for both entry-level and mid-career talent . Some ex-Aerojet employees have wound up at other companies around the region , since the company decamped to Alabama . “ The people who did stay had to go find other jobs ,” says Symon , who notes her company has a couple of ex-Aerojet employees .
Rich Corsi , dean of the UC Davis College of Engineering , says his school has around 280 students enrolled in aerospace engineering . Dr . Kevan Shafizadeh , dean of Sac State ’ s College of Engineering and Computer Science , says his school sends students to work for companies like Kratos .
A lot of local aerospace companies might be able to go elsewhere if they wanted to .
“ I get calls every day and I get letters every day from pretty much every other state asking if we ’ re looking at simplifying our operations , simplifying our taxes , simplifying the legal structure , reducing our costs ,” Belle says . “ You can name every stereotype about doing business in California and every other state and every other economic development community … ( they ) use that and send advertisements to us .”
But with many of Tri Tool ’ s customers overseas , Belle doesn ’ t see a need to relocate , saying , “ I think as long as we can meet the needs of our customers , we don ’ t need to disrupt our business .”
Herro says other states court Kratos all the time , though he says it ’ s not easy logistically for the company to pick up and leave California . Herro won ’ t comment if Kratos would leave the state if it were easy to do so , though he says , “ It ’ s not all just columns and rows and decimal points . There ’ s humans involved in this and we take that personal side very seriously .”
Symon says she receives at least three calls weekly “ from other states and cities around the country trying to recruit us into their territories ,” with attractive incentives . She doesn ’ t think there ’ s a serious chance of her company relocating .
“ We all love living here and we ’ re small enough that we can do what we need to do , still grow a company , be good ,” Symon says . “ But everyone that works for us , they pretty much have grown up here . So this is home .”
Graham Womack is a freelance writer based in Sacramento . His work has appeared in a variety of publications , including the San Francisco Chronicle , the Sacramento Bee and Sacramento News & Review . On Twitter @ grahamdude .
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