VP, Business & Workforce Development
Genesee County EDC, NY, United States
Passionate and energized economic and workforce development leader moving at the speed of business!
Sold over $10 million Industrial Real Estate land sales from over 2000 acres at 8 shovel ready strategic industry focus parks for site selection. Two main highlighted industrial parks include:
WNY STAMP Mega Site - 1250 acres targeted towards advance manufacturing companies to include Semiconductor and Renewable Energy. Two recent wins include Plug Power and Edwards Vacuum. Both projects combined with over $800M investment and creation of nearly 700 jobs.
Chris developed the Genesee-FAST world class workforce development program. Genesee-FAST is a rapid deployment of several local workforce agencies to assist manufacturing companies for re-skilling and up-skilling individuals. The Genesee-FAST team supports the following sectors:
F - Food Processing
A - Advanced Manufacturing
S - Skilled Trades
T - Technician at the Mechatronics level
"Coach SwazZ" was created to be a youth career coach in giving advice to students in grades k-12. The goal is to properly align students with the local job opportunities in their backyard today and for future opportunities tomorrow in our shovel ready industrial parks. Coach Swazz creates programs to excite students on STEM and Skilled Trades career pathways.
He is Co-Chairman/Founder of "GLOW with your hands" event that allows 1000 students in the GLOW region from grades 8-12 to have hands on career exploration with over 65 local companies , established the “Cornell in High School” program for career focused high school seniors, coordinated sponsorship to support $700k of new Mechatronics Equipment Lab and a Welding Simulator, established Pre-Apprenticeship summer boot camp, inspired Finger Lakes Youth Apprenticeship in Genesee County whereas high school juniors job shadow and high school seniors have a paid internship at our local companies, and is the Board President of the Business & Education Alliance agency, established the first Senior Job Fair where manufacturers recruit on High School campus.
Also, Coach SwazZ leads several soap box derby STEM/Skilled trades events for boy and girls 7 to 13 years old!
Results to date: Over $2 billion in capital investment and over 5,000 jobs pledged!
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Developing the Next Generation of Diverse Talent for Advanced Manufacturing
Tuesday, July 9, 2024
2:00pm – 2:25pm PDT