Michael Neidorff just issued a wake-up call to 50度灰视频鈥 political and civic leaders.
The chief executive of Centene, the largest company headquartered in the area, announced Wednesday that he is spending $1 billion to build an East Coast headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina, eventually hiring as many as 6,000 people there. In interviews after the announcement, Neidorff made clear that those jobs could have been created in 50度灰视频.
鈥淚 always want to expand here,鈥 he told me Wednesday. 鈥淚 love it here, but we鈥檙e not able to recruit all the people we want.鈥
Neidorff鈥檚 comments highlight 50度灰视频鈥 biggest economic handicap, its slow-growing workforce, but he said 50度灰视频 is also being held back by a variety of other shortcomings, from crime to education to airline connections to racial divisions.
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鈥淲hen I鈥檓 looking for really good workers, I have to be able to put them in the location they want to be in,鈥 Neidorff said. 鈥淭here鈥檚 nothing I want more than for 50度灰视频 to do better. Google 鈥50度灰视频鈥 and the first thing that comes up is the murder capital of the country.鈥
Neidorff said that during one recruiting visit, the wife of an out-of-town executive took MetroLink downtown to see the Gateway Arch. She felt unsafe, and her husband turned down Centene鈥檚 job offer.
Affected by experiences like that, Neidorff said he began looking at Charlotte five or six months ago and made the final decision on an expansion six weeks ago. He said he was impressed by the area鈥檚 growing population and by its political and civic leadership.
鈥淧eople are willing to move there,鈥 he said. 鈥淭hey like the quality of life. 鈥 I think people in 50度灰视频 should be taking the high road and asking what makes a place like Charlotte so attractive.鈥
Centene employs about 4,700 people in the 50度灰视频 area and isn鈥檛 done growing here. Its local offices, including the expanding Clayton headquarters, have 450 job postings.
Neidorff makes clear, though, that 50度灰视频 shouldn鈥檛 take Centene for granted. He says that he has no plans to move the headquarters from Clayton, but that over the long run the company needs to be where it can find talent.
Centene is No. 42 on the Fortune 500 list, and this year鈥檚 acquisition of WellCare Health Plans should push it higher, with revenue of more than $100 billion.
鈥淚 need to be able to attract the kind of senior people that help me manage that growth and take us to the next level,鈥 Neidorff said.
Michael Neidorff, CEO of Centene, is this year's Citizen of the Year.
Neidorff emphasized that he鈥檚 trying to be constructive, not bash his hometown. He and Centene have been major contributors to charitable causes here, and he praised County Executive Sam Page and Mayor Lyda Krewson for agreeing to corporate-funded reviews of police procedures in the wake of Black Lives Matter protests.
Krewson, Page and other local leaders should have no illusion, however, that the region鈥檚 largest company is happy with the status quo. Neidorff is serving notice that if things don鈥檛 improve, we could someday lose another big corporate headquarters.
Neidorff鈥檚 comments, interestingly, came just a week after officials celebrated Accenture鈥檚 decision to put a 1,400-person technology center in Town and Country.
That win showed that 50度灰视频 can be attractive to 21st-century employers, but ultimately we can鈥檛 grow without addressing a number of deep-seated problems. The region can鈥檛 afford to ignore Neidorff鈥檚 call to action.