Piedmont Triad, N.C., logistics news (Greensboro, High Point, Winston-Salem)/N.C. Center for Global Logistics nears launch with hire
The Piedmont Triad Partnership is ramping up efforts to launch the N.C. Center for Global Logistics by hiring a new operations manager.
Kathleen Patterson, who now serves as the manager of cluster development and retention services at the Greensboro Economic Development Alliance, will start her new post Feb. 7.
“It’s an exciting venture,” Patterson said. “What I bring is the passion and enthusiasm for it and the ability to really manage and organize things.”
David Hauser, executive director of the center, said Patterson is very knowledgeable about logistics and “hit the ground running.”
Naming Patterson as manager is one of many steps the partnership has taken to fully launch the center, which is designed to help build the region’s reputation as a transportation and supply chain hub and coordinate educational efforts to prepare the local work force for logistics-related jobs.
For example, the center became an official limited liability company this month and recently filed a trademark application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
By 2012, the center will move from the partnership’s offices on Gallimore Dairy Road to the new 100-acre northwest campus for Guilford Technical Community College. Samet Construction/SRS is the construction manager on the $65 million campus being financed by bond referendums passed in Guilford County. Ken Grube, education group manager for Samet Corp. and project director for the new campus, said construction is slated to begin within the next 30 days and wrap up by late 2012 or early 2013.
From its new offices, the center will coordinate its “virtual campus” offering a set of logistics courses that seven participating schools — including UNC-Greensboro, N.C. A&T State University and GTCC — agree to teach and accept the credits from.
“What we want to be able to do down the road is make a logistics-supply chain class a prerequisite like a general writing class or a general math class,” Hauser said.
Beyond the classroom
Additionally, the center will eventually help solve logistics problems on a national and global level — and be paid a fee for its research, Hauser said.
“If Brazil has a logistics problem that it just can’t solve, they’ll call the N.C. Center for Global Logistics,” he said. “If we can utilize the students, the universities and the community colleges’ expertise and tap into the 1,300 logistics companies that do this every day, we can solve any problem.”
The initial concept for the center was spearheaded roughly four years ago, when industry leaders and members of the partnership’s Logistics Roundtable, Global Logistics Task Force and Aerotropolis Leadership Board used the $15 million federal WIRED grant to identify which industries the region should focus on building. Logistics turned out to be one of the four.
“That in turn showed some of the other leaders in the region that logistics is a viable economic driver, so it made it much easier for them to invest in the Piedmont Triad Partnership,” Hauser said.
BB&T CEO Kelly King, David Congdon, CEO of Thomasville-based Old Dominion Freight Line and GTCC President Don Cameron then came up with the idea of creating a “physical campus” to house the center.
The partnership contributed $415,000 in startup costs to fund the center and its staff, including Hauser and Patterson. Moving forward, the center will raise money on its own, through local, state, national and international grants, Hauser said.
John Kasarda, an aviation expert at UNC- Chapel Hill’s Kenan-Flagler Business School, said the center will not only highlight the importance of logistics in the Triad but also bring together regional expertise to address transportation challenges.
“Logistics is in the process of gaining greater visibility as a key function of the Piedmont Triad region,” Kasarda said. “It is well positioned on the East Coast, there are excellent highways, the airport’s logistics infrastructure is expanding and the types of programs being offered in the region’s community colleges and universities are expanding and improving.”
Kathleen Patterson, who now serves as the manager of cluster development and retention services at the Greensboro Economic Development Alliance, will start her new post Feb. 7.
“It’s an exciting venture,” Patterson said. “What I bring is the passion and enthusiasm for it and the ability to really manage and organize things.”
David Hauser, executive director of the center, said Patterson is very knowledgeable about logistics and “hit the ground running.”
Naming Patterson as manager is one of many steps the partnership has taken to fully launch the center, which is designed to help build the region’s reputation as a transportation and supply chain hub and coordinate educational efforts to prepare the local work force for logistics-related jobs.
For example, the center became an official limited liability company this month and recently filed a trademark application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
By 2012, the center will move from the partnership’s offices on Gallimore Dairy Road to the new 100-acre northwest campus for Guilford Technical Community College. Samet Construction/SRS is the construction manager on the $65 million campus being financed by bond referendums passed in Guilford County. Ken Grube, education group manager for Samet Corp. and project director for the new campus, said construction is slated to begin within the next 30 days and wrap up by late 2012 or early 2013.
From its new offices, the center will coordinate its “virtual campus” offering a set of logistics courses that seven participating schools — including UNC-Greensboro, N.C. A&T State University and GTCC — agree to teach and accept the credits from.
“What we want to be able to do down the road is make a logistics-supply chain class a prerequisite like a general writing class or a general math class,” Hauser said.
Beyond the classroom
Additionally, the center will eventually help solve logistics problems on a national and global level — and be paid a fee for its research, Hauser said.
“If Brazil has a logistics problem that it just can’t solve, they’ll call the N.C. Center for Global Logistics,” he said. “If we can utilize the students, the universities and the community colleges’ expertise and tap into the 1,300 logistics companies that do this every day, we can solve any problem.”
The initial concept for the center was spearheaded roughly four years ago, when industry leaders and members of the partnership’s Logistics Roundtable, Global Logistics Task Force and Aerotropolis Leadership Board used the $15 million federal WIRED grant to identify which industries the region should focus on building. Logistics turned out to be one of the four.
“That in turn showed some of the other leaders in the region that logistics is a viable economic driver, so it made it much easier for them to invest in the Piedmont Triad Partnership,” Hauser said.
BB&T CEO Kelly King, David Congdon, CEO of Thomasville-based Old Dominion Freight Line and GTCC President Don Cameron then came up with the idea of creating a “physical campus” to house the center.
The partnership contributed $415,000 in startup costs to fund the center and its staff, including Hauser and Patterson. Moving forward, the center will raise money on its own, through local, state, national and international grants, Hauser said.
John Kasarda, an aviation expert at UNC- Chapel Hill’s Kenan-Flagler Business School, said the center will not only highlight the importance of logistics in the Triad but also bring together regional expertise to address transportation challenges.
“Logistics is in the process of gaining greater visibility as a key function of the Piedmont Triad region,” Kasarda said. “It is well positioned on the East Coast, there are excellent highways, the airport’s logistics infrastructure is expanding and the types of programs being offered in the region’s community colleges and universities are expanding and improving.”