Evan Brown serves because the Government Director of EDGE (Financial Growth Development 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 development and broaden 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 latest land buy for a future knowledge middle, a key milestone within the state’s ongoing push to draw innovation and high-tech business development.
Let’s begin with the large information—Google has acquired land in Stillwater, Oklahoma for a future knowledge middle campus. Are you able to inform us how this mission got here to life and what it means for the native and state financial system?
Google has known as Oklahoma dwelling for over a decade, investing $4.4 billion in its knowledge middle at MidAmerica Industrial Park in Pryor, Oklahoma. The corporate has been a implausible accomplice with the state, each using a whole bunch of Oklahomans and giving again to the area people the place it’s situated. Google has additionally continued to put money into STEM schooling by awarding grants to varsities and different organizations, which additionally helps guarantee a gradual workforce pipeline for years to come back.
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 type of growth?
Oklahoma’s central location, reasonably priced vitality prices and dedication to being essentially the most business-friendly state within the nation make it good for any vital funding. Our state is all the time 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 are going to present them precisely why Oklahoma is the fitting state for them to develop or broaden.
In 2023, Oklahoma noticed 71 bulletins for brand new and increasing firms. What tendencies are you seeing within the varieties of companies selecting Oklahoma, and what’s driving this momentum?
Not solely is Oklahoma the proper location for brand new know-how firms, however additionally it is turning into a hub for nationwide protection. We have now 5 army installations that the Division of Protection continues to put money into, and our staff can be engaged on a number of protection manufacturing tasks that might convey greater than 1,000 jobs and $1 billion in funding. We have now Lengthy Wave, an Oklahoma Metropolis-based firm, which was just lately awarded a subcontract to assist develop the Navy’s new plane. The contract is for a whole bunch of thousands and thousands of {dollars} over six years, and they’re including 150 new jobs. We’re additionally taking steps to onshore crucial 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 12 months. There’s additionally Stardust Energy, a lithium refining firm, that broke floor on a $1.2 billion refinery in Muskogee earlier this 12 months.
Google’s resolution displays confidence in Oklahoma’s infrastructure. Might you elaborate on what makes the state’s infrastructure notably well-suited for large-scale knowledge facilities?
All of it comes right down to our reasonably priced vitality and business-friendly insurance policies. Information facilities require a considerable amount of vitality, and proper now, we produce 60% extra vitality than we eat in Oklahoma. Communities even have the power to work instantly with these firms to provide you with designated energy era for knowledge middle growth or different tasks.
With vitality prices almost 20% beneath 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 eat, and that’s an enormous benefit when recruiting knowledge facilities or different related 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 situated, we’ve got the furthest inland port within the nation, state management is dedicated to chopping pink tape, we’ve got reasonably priced 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 entice tasks like Google’s?
SITES stands for Supporting Industrial Transformation and Financial Success. It’s our manner of partnering with communities throughout the state to proactively deal with infrastructure wants to fulfill the demand of current companies and firms seeking to set up operations in Oklahoma. Communities can apply if they’ve a web site with infrastructure wants, and if chosen, we accomplice with the group to assist cowl a few of the prices of these enhancements. This reveals firms seeking to broaden or transfer to Oklahoma that the state is dedicated to having a web site prepared for them to get operations up and working as rapidly as potential. It additionally reveals Oklahoma communities that the state is dedicated to investing of their group and getting ready them for financial development. It’s like once you’re purchasing for a brand new dwelling. We would like the enterprise to see its potential spot, fall in love with the location and group, and be enthusiastic about transferring in.
How is Oklahoma getting 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 have now faculties 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 broaden internships and apprenticeship packages whereas additionally constructing partnerships between faculties and companies. Oklahoma has a terrific CareerTech system, which helps firms perceive the abilities they want and incorporates that info within the classroom.
Stillwater’s collaboration with a number of native companions was important to securing this mission. 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 is just not carried out in a silo. It’s not state or group; it’s state partnering with communities to grasp their wants and wishes for development. We should deliberately put money into sturdy relationships throughout our state by means of elected officers and group companions to make sure we totally perceive the property. If we’re out pitching to an organization that Oklahoma is the place to be, we’ve got to grasp all of our property so we will help join a enterprise to the group 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 related tech-focused initiatives or firms to observe?
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 surroundings the place entrepreneurs and companies can thrive. We get weekly calls from knowledge facilities, uncommon earth companies, and different tech-focused firms concerned about Oklahoma and doubtlessly discovering a group accomplice that may finest match their wants.
Trying forward, what’s your imaginative and prescient for Oklahoma’s function within the nationwide financial system, particularly as AI, cloud computing, and digital infrastructure proceed to develop?
Governor Kevin Stitt all the time says he needs to take Oklahoma to the world and convey the world again to Oklahoma. In 2024 alone, our staff 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 instantly between Oklahoma and different international locations.
