2018 Board of Directors
Steve Paterson President & CEO League City Regional Chamber
Education Is Everything ! As we all know the market place is changing dynamically , in fact , that may be an
understatement . I sat through a webinar last week , which after two hours changed my thinking dramatically . Although it did confirm , that my intuition was steering me in the right direction as we endeavor to move the Chamber of Commerce membership needs forward .
The webinar was about changes coming in transportation and in automation , or as it is beginning to be referred to as the “ Internet of all things .” Also , in that same week I heard a presentation from a person who does economic forecasting for the Federal Reserve in Dallas . He spoke to the employment rate in Houston and the effect of the oil and gas industry turn down in 2016 and 2017 , where many layoffs and jobs eliminations took place . However , conversely because of the diversification of the economy in the Houston area over the past twenty years , the market place was able to quickly back fill many of those jobs with placements in the service industry , for a net of almost zero job loss . However , the downside of this event will be felt for a long time and will be continually affect our markets . The reason is the wage disparity of the new jobs versus the old jobs .
The main reason was this event was twofold . The first reason was the higher paying jobs were skills-based jobs that were the ones lost , which many are being replaced by technology . Secondly , the new service-based jobs were ones , which were manual labor related or required less skills to accomplish , hence the pay is less . In a side bar conversation with the economist , I asked him a question ,” How many jobs are out there that cannot be filled , because people who have those skillsets are not present ?”. His answer was , many . Funny answer for an economist , so I pressed harder . He stated ,” that they have not looked at that market or segmented those needs in their analysis ”.
When I heard this , to me would be an exceptional opportunity if someone were to study our market to determine where these skills gaps are and identify a means to close that gap . This would be an excellent way to identify and predict where education and skillset training could be developed to provide high paying careers .
Going back to my initial statement of the market place is changing dynamically , however so are the skills needed for this new economy . In the past year here in our region , we have had leadership change at two of our upper divisional educational institutions . Dr . Warren Nichols , now President of College of the Mainland and Dr . Ira Blake , President of the University of Houston Clear Lake are very tuned into this skills gap that exists and are moving their institutions forward to meet the need s of economic development and the workforce needed to meet those needs being developed locally . We are also seeing this movement happen at Galveston College , Texas A and M Galveston , San Jacinto Community College and UTMB . This is very encouraging .
League City and the surrounding region is blessed with a wonderful future as it evolves . We sit in the middle of this innovation corridor , which will require skilled and educated professionals as the region develops . I believe , to be successful , a study to find out what those needs are would be a wonderful investment and a benefit to our educational institutions to help them fill those gaps , before they become apparent . By moving in this direction , we may become the leader in job creation and quality communities we know that can happen . After all , as we all know , education is everything .
2018 Board of Directors
Chairwoman , Rebecca Lilley
Memorial Hermann
Treasurer , Bix Rathburn
RPC Consulting
Secretary , Gloria Greene
EliteCare 24 Hour ER
Past Chairman , Ray Soto
Soto Financial & Insurance
2019 Incoming Chairman , Bill Provenzano
Hometown Bank of League City
Elga Boeker
Houston Methodist St . John Hospital
James Brockway
Brockway Realty / Commercial
Dr . Laura Dupont
CCISD
Matthew Mathias
Clear Lake Regional Medical Center
Kalpesh Patel
Hampton Inn & Suites / Candlewood Suites
Chris Premont
Ron Carter Cadillac Hyundai Genesis
Dan Seal
BAHEP
Debbie Simmons
Anchor Point
Becky Trout-Unbehagen
UTMB Health
Rolando Villareal
Hilltop Securities
Peter Wuenschel
CIS - Bay Area
John Baumgartner
Ex-Officio , City of League City
Amanda Fenwick
Ex-Officio , City of Clear Lake Shores
Lisa Howard
Ex-Officio , HOT Tax Board
Peggy Zahler
Ex-Officio , HOA Alliance of League City