SAMANTHA CART
The I-79 Technology Park in Fairmont, WV. Photo by Sherry Carr/High Technology Foundation.
Anchored in
the Mountain State
West Virginia’s High Technology Foundation is focused on creating economic
diversification by building up the state’s knowledge sector with the addition
of companies like Leidos, a high-tech giant with operations in Fairmont,
Clarksburg and Morgantown that is generating new work, new jobs and
new opportunities in the Mountain State.
For years, community and state leaders, economic analysts
and higher education officials have been calling for West
Virginia to diversify its economy. While the Mountain State
has long relied on the mineral extraction industry to employ
its people and sustain its budget, it is obvious the national and
global economies are moving toward the knowledge sector—a
trend that weighs heavily on states that depend on a limited
range of industries.
“West Virginia needs to be diversified in such a way that it
will allow the state to participate meaningfully in the national
economy,” says Jim Estep, president and CEO of the High
Technology Foundation. “The goal should be to position West
Virginia to play a bigger role in the growing knowledge sector.”
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WEST VIRGINIA EXECUTIVE
All Hands on Deck
The High Technology Foundation’s strategy for diversify-
ing the state’s economy is known as the federal anchor model,
which involves recruiting federal operations, or anchors, to
the region in the hopes of establishing a competitive new
business sector.
“Most companies in the knowledge sector are attracted to
those areas that have a workforce with a high educational
attainment,” says Estep. “This is a problem because for as
long as I can remember West Virginia has been ranked 50th in
educational attainment. This is not because West Virginians are
stupid or don’t want to go to school. We have been so undiversi-
fied and focused on coal that the workforce requirements have