VOLUME 5 • ISSUE 9 September 2022 Keeping you informed and inspired. Huntsville,Suite600SeptemberVolBUSINESSHUNTSVILLEJOURNAL5,Issue92022BoulevardSouth104AL35802Online Huntsvillebusinessjournal.com Twitter @HsvBizJournal LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/company/huntsville-business-journal/ Facebook www.facebook.com/huntsvillebusinessjournal COVER STORY Best Lawyers Publication Recognizes Multiple Huntsville Lawyers and Firms ACCOLADES Attorneys are selected for the list through an extensive set of surveys sent to prominent lawyers who assess the legal abilities of their peers. Every lawyer who makes the list does so entirely on peer review as no one is permit ted to pay for participation. By Noah Logan - Page 2 New County Courthouse Among Topics at State of the County Address Huntsville’s downtown square has always been centered by the Madison County Courthouse. That will no longer be true once a site has been determined to build a new courthouse. By Mike Easterling - Page 16 • Sit Down With Success: The Sound of Success: Penny Nielsen of Mix 96.9 By Dawn Suiter • Page 3 • Huntsville Sees 1.4% Wage Increase While Alabama is Ranked with 15th Smallest Wage Increase By Ashlyn Grey • Page 8 • Surviving the Swelter: Adapting Agribusiness to a Changing Climate By Marie Johnson • Page 18 • EDPA Announces New Alabama Business Intelligence Center By Ashlyn Grey • Page 20 ADDITIONAL STORIES COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
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Angela Schaefer (Loftin Holt)
publications. w 2 Huntsville BUSINESS JOURNAL
Ryan Letson ( Bradley Arant Boult Cummings) Harod “Hal” Mooty III ( Brad ley Arant Boult Cummings)
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By Noah Logan David Canupp (Lanier Ford Shaver & Payne) – Appellate Practice
Bradley Arant Boult Cummings Carr Allison Cloud, Ryan & Rouse, Farley & Shaver Morris, King & Hodge Siniard
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Clay Martin (Martin & Helms) – Mass Tort Litigation
Sarah Sutton Osborne (Bradley Arant Boult Cummings)
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Several Huntsville attorneys were highlighted in the most recent edition of the “Best Lawyers” publication that was released to the public in mid-Au gust. The publication is provided by a legal rating service, Best Lawyers, and has been one of the most notable recognitions a lawyer can receive from his or her peers. Readers have looked to the list annually for reliable and free information about their region’s top attorneys since it was first pub lished in The1981.Best Lawyers methodol ogy is built upon the foundation of peer review, capturing the consen sus opinion of leading lawyers about the professional abilities of their col leagues within the same geographical area and legal practice area.
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In addition to individual awards, Best Lawyers also recognizes law firms that meet the same standard of qual ity. For the 2023 edition, 10 different firms in Huntsville made the list.
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David Holt (Loftin Holt) –Commercial Litigation
Attorneys are selected for the list through an extensive set of surveys sent to prominent lawyers who as sess the legal abilities of their peers. Every lawyer who makes the list does so entirely on peer review as no one is permitted to pay for participation.
Katy Carr (Carr Allison)
Additionally, lawyers can earn “Lawyer of the Year” status for their respective fields. Only one individual can earn that status for their field in eachHeremetric.are the 8 Huntsville attor neys awarded Lawyer of the Year for their specific practice:
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& Payne P.C. • Loftin Holt LLP • Martin & Helms •
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LLC • Dentons Sirote PC • Krebs
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ACCOLADES
The 2023 edition factored in more than 11.5 million votes and recognized around 70,000 lawyers that meet the rigorous standards. This equates to roughly 5% of practicing attorneys earning this distinction.
Publications like these are im portant for the legal industry. The American Bar Association advises consumers to begin their search through a trusted friend, relative, or business associate, and according to a legal industry study, clients reported using a combination of methods, the top three being recom mendations from friends or family, online search engines, and referrals from other lawyers.
Stephen H. Hall (Bradley Arant Boult Cummings) – Litigation / Intellectual Property
Logan Abernathy ( Dentons Sirote)
L. Justin Burney (Bradley Arant Boult Cummings) – Corporate Law
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Sarah Shepard (Sarah Shepard LLC) W. Ty Stafford (Lanler Ford Shaver & Payne)
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The Best Lawyers publication also features a separate list, Ones to Watch. Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch recipients have typically been in prac tice for 5-9 years and are chosen on the same peer-review system.
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Twelve Huntsville lawyers made this list.
George Knox, Jr. (Lanier Ford Shaver & Payne) – Medical Mal practice Law – Defendants
David Hodge (Morris, King & Hodge) – Bet-the-Company Lit igation
The full list can be found online at https://www.bestlaw yers.com/ along with information about the methodology used and how to nominate lawyers for future
Law, LLC
Christopher Pape (Lanler Ford Shaver & Payne)
Lauren Houseknecht (Lanler Ford Shaver & Payne)
Best
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Amanda Coolidge (Lanler Ford Shaver & Payne) Sarah Green (Dentons Sirote)
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Dry, PLLC • Lanier Ford
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• Ryan Brake (Carr Allison) - Em ployment Law / Management Lawyers Publication Recognizes Multiple Huntsville Lawyers and Firms
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The Sound of Success: A Conversation with Penny Nielsen of Mix 96.9
She and Paul later married, and after he passed away in 2001, Penny took the helm as station owner. Under her guidance, it continues to thrive. She and Gen eral Manager Nate Adams Cholevik sat down with me in the control room for a discussion about her experience in the business. Tell me a little about the history of Mix 96.9. My husband built it and it went on the air in 1965. It was built in his garage and he used an old transmitter that he bought from, I believe, Redstone Ar senal at one time…he was a chemical engineer, so he had no idea what he was doing (laughs). It’s been in the family sinceHethen.passed away in 2001, so it just kind of fell in my lap. But I was used to everything everyday. What’s your favorite thing about being a business owner? Being able to hire people that are cre ative and love radio…impacting people’s lives and having fun while we’re doing it. I will say this…we’ve had longevity with people that we hire–they seem to stay. They don’t go away, and that’s good. It’s wonderful when you’ve got salespeople that stay 35 years-plus. Of course, most of them have retired by now. Even the on-air people [have been] here 12-13 years. Nate started when he was just a kid out of college and he’s been here 25 years. That speaks a lot to how we deal with people here. We love having people stay…it’s a family. It’s another extension of my family, I should say. How do you balance your person al and professional life? [Laughs] I’m raising two grand daughters, and having a family like this, it’s easy because if somebody is sick, somebody’s not feeling well, we kind of juggle around–everybody pitches in to help each other. What would you consider to be the greatest challenge of owning a business and how do you manage that? Just making sure everybody’s happy and making sure everybody’s got what they need…if we’re happy and we’re doing what we need to do, we’re gonna make the client happy. And we’ve done a good job with that. We’ve got a lot of longevity with clients too. What advice would you give to someone considering starting their own business, radio or otherwise? Just be willing to put what needs to be done into it. Be aware that it’s not going to be 9-5 or 8-6 or whatever. It’s a 24/7 thing if you own your business…other than that, just be willing to work and be willing to pitch in when needed, and this team here is very much that way. If somebody needs something, somebody else can always help. w
by Redstone Arsenal chemical engineer Paul Nielsen in his garage because there weren’t any radio stations within range of the base, he chose the callsign WRSA as a nod to Redstone Arsenal. Initially an easy lis tening station (Beautiful 97), it shifted to soft rock (Lite 96.9) in 2000, then adult contemporary as Mix 96.9 in 2015. One thing remained the same throughout, however: it was, and still is, a familyPennybusiness.Nielsen joined the station in 1978, first scheduling commercials and later moving into billing and other roles.
By Dawn Suiter /
Sit Down With Success is a feature of the Huntsville Business Journal on entre preneurs and their keys to success. To read the full story, please visit the Huntsville Business Journal Website. If you’ve lived here for any amount of time, chances are you’ve heard Mix 96.9 (WRSA-FM). Featuring a va riety of music from the 80s-present, it’s been part of the Huntsville-area sound scape since 1965 and remains one of the top-rated stations in the Huntsville radioFoundedmarket.
Photo by By Steve Babin
SIT DOWN WITH SUCCESS
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President /Publisher Todd Stephenson Editor Gus Wintzell Writers Alan Clemons MikeMarieAshlynEasterlingGreyJohnsonNoahLoganDawnSuiter Graphic Design Justina Simon Website Jim Gharib Photographers Steve Babin Justina Simon Director of Sales Carolyn Stephenson Account Executives ………………………………………………… Noah Logan Marilyn Pinchock Distribution Glenda Mace Subsidiary of EVENT Publishing Huntsville Business Journal is published monthly by EVENT Publishing, PO Box 14219, Huntsville, AL 35815. For advertising information call 256.533.8078, e-mail todd@eventhuntsville.com, or visit us on the web at www.huntsvillebusinessjournal.com For editorial information contact editor@huntsvillebusinessjournal.com ALL CONTENTS ©2021. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. REPRODUCTION OR USE IN WHOLE OR IN PART OF THE CONTENTS WITHOUT THE PRIOR WRITTEN PERMISSION OF THE PUBLISHER IS PROHIBITED. HUNTSVILLE BUSINESS JOURNAL IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK OF EVENT PUBLISHING. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. UNSOLICITED PHOTOGRAPHS OR ARTICLES ARE SUBMITTED AT THE RISK OF THE PHOTOGRAPHER OR AUTHOR. EVENT PUBLISHING ASSUMES NO LIABILITY FOR THE RETURN OF ANY UNSOLICITED MATERIALS AND MAY USE THEM AT ITS DISCRETION. 4 Huntsville BUSINESS JOURNAL
Another way to break up the monotony of meetings and to keep team members engaged is by in corporating polling as a means of checking for understanding or so liciting opinions. Information on creating Zoom polls can be found at
“Zoom time” even more outside of meetings.Anearly 2022 report from Pew Research noted that 56% of work ers who say their jobs can be done mainly from home report frequently using online platforms to connect with coworkers. While most of these workers reported that they are fine with the amount of time they spend on video calls, about one in four said they are worn out by it. Herein lies the problem–while management may see video calls as a means of increasing team engage ment, employees don’t necessarily agree. The Virtira study found that over a quarter of remote workers felt pressured to keep their cameras on even if not required. In addition, 58% of self-identified introverts and 40% of extroverts reported on-cam era exhaustion.There’sgood news though: researchers have been busy search ing for ways to fight virtual meeting fatigue. A 2021 study re leased by communication professor Jeremy Bailenson, founder of the Stanford Virtual Human Interac tion Lab, listed four solutions to common issues:
While the way meetings took place shifted, the need to come to gether to collaborate, discuss project progress, and tackle workplace chal lenges remained unchanged. In fact, the number of meetings actually in creased in many cases–a 2021 study from Virtira Consulting found that 63% of remote workers participated in more meetings online than they would have in the office, with 30% spending 2-3 hours a day meeting on camera.Unfortunately, the virtual en vironment strips away much of the context necessary in order to gain the full benefit of meetings: the lack of nonverbal cues and eye contact, along with the multiple faces crowd ing the screen (including your own) can be distracting and even stressful.
• Is the cognitive load too much during long stretches of meet ings? Give yourself an “audio only” break. Bailenson rec ommends that you not only turn off your camera, but also turn your body away from the screen for a few minutes in order to give yourself a break from constantly trying to in terpret fellow virtual attendees’ nonverbal Suggestionscues.offered by other ex perts include avoiding multitasking, building in breaks, and switching to phone calls and email as needed. Virtual meetings don’t have to be all business either–teams can in crease engagement with icebreakers at the beginning of virtual meetings such as “Meet the Pets,” “Show and Tell,” and light discussions about anything from the latest weird news stories people have seen to mustwatch movies and TV shows.
By Dawn Suiter
• Trapped at your desk for hours and hours? Think about the background of the room you’re videoconferencing in, taking into consideration the placement of the camera and whether an external keyboard can help create distance or flexibility. An external camera farther from the screen will allow you to pace around the room and doodle in virtual meetings like you might in real ones. Turning one’s video off periodically during meetings can be a good ground rule to set for groups as well. A good pair of Bluetooth headphones can also provide a little more room to roam.
Are All the Virtual Meetings Grinding You A Look At "Zoom Fatigue"
tionberemote.workplacetoneedstothebecomingcellmeetingbasedmeetingtheonyideapostingsignalface,bolsInsteadcussionsfor-meetings.en-us/articles/213756303-Polling-https://support.zoom.us/hc/Theuseofreactionsduringdiscanalsolivenupmeetings.ofvoicingresponses,symsuchasthumbsup,asurprisedhandclapping,andsooncanyourresponseswithouthavtosayaword.AUniversityofColoradoblogsuggestsanadditionalcreativeforbreakingupthemonotofvirtualmeetings:leavingcameraoffandtakingtheoutside.Insteadofadesk-meeting,tryavirtualwalkingusingheadphonesandphones.Withvideoconferencinglikelyapermanentfixtureinbusinessworld,it’simportantfocusonthementalandphysicalofallteammembersinordercreateamorepleasant,stress-freewhetherit’sin-personorTheworkplacemayneverthesameagain,afterall–adaptaisthekeytosuccess. w September 2022 5
If there’s one thing the past couple of years have taught us, it’s that meeting spaces don’t have to be limited to the confines of the tradi tional office. Practically overnight, meetings switched from conference rooms to Zoom, Teams, Slack, and Google Meet rooms. Before, employees and man agers could simply walk to their colleagues’ cubicles or offices as needed to ask questions or discuss projects. Now, it requires setting an agenda and coordinating meetings or playing phone tag.
• Are you tired of seeing a bunch of faces close-up? Take Zoom out of the full-screen option and reduce the size of the Zoom window relative to the monitor to minimize face size.
WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT
The increased concentration and mental processing required of virtual meetings while simultane ously thinking and communicating is fatiguing. Not only that, but the planning involved in setting up and attending meetings adds a new layer of stress. In addition, the job becomes more sedentary when em ployees are trapped in their seats all day for online meetings. The Virtira study found that 49% of professionals working re motely reported a high degree of exhaustion as a direct result of nu merous daily video calls. Employers’ attempts to raise morale by hosting online happy hours, pizza parties, and so on increased the amount of
Using an external keyboard also allows an increase in the personal space bubble between oneself and the grid.
Down?
• Do you have the unsettling feeling that you’re looking in a mirror? Select the “hide selfview” button, which you can access by right-clicking your own photo, after you make sure your face is framed properly on screen.
Photo by Dawn Suiter a leader in digital engineering…we know it’s going to take some of those early adopters to create the com petitive pressure that gets everybody upskilled. That’s our goal,” Schmitt said.Schmitt observed that because this is a new technological revolu tion, there’s no workforce to execute it–one goal, therefore, is to also pro vide middle management with the tools and understanding needed to encourage employees to adopt the necessary skill sets to move forward in the digital engineering enterprise.
6 Huntsville BUSINESS JOURNAL
AMIIC Helping Local Businesses Compete, Training Next Generation Workforce
Located at 5021 Technology Drive, Suite E in Cummings Re search Park, the nonprofit 501(c)3 Advanced Manufacturing Inno vation and Integration Center (AMIIC) opened its doors just six months ago, but it’s already making a big difference with local industry.
“Our whole goal is to lower the barrier to entry and educate as many people as we possibly can in digital engineering practices,” Schmitt said. “It’s a whole philosophical shift. And the reality is, those who do not fully embrace it will simply be left be hind.”When asked what drew UTEP to this program, Schmitt explained that in 2012 the National Defense Authorization Act established eight advanced manufacturing institutes, the first of which was in additive manufacturing. “That one was called America Makes,” he said.
“These kids who otherwise may not have that opportunity end up Masters, PhDs, but more important ly, end up in industry very quickly… it just changes the trajectory of their entire family. So we’re doing the same thing here,” he continued.
“We need to access traditionally underrepresented communities and provide them [with] exposure, opportunity, education, and employ ment.”“Rather than reinvent the wheel, we reached out to the University of Texas-El Paso, who is the largest minority-serving institution in the country,” Schmitt said, explaining that the aerospace center has a pro gram that takes students who may come from under-resourced schools and underrepresented communities and offers them opportunities to work on “NASA projects or indus try projects on missiles, hypersonics, aerospace-related projects.”
According to Schmitt, there are now three Digital Engineering cen ters: one at UTEP, one in Huntsville, and one in Youngstown, OH with an additional one being established at Johnson Space Flight Center in
By Dawn Suiter
UTEP’s W.M. Keck Center for 3D Innovation is a satellite of America Makes, “so [it has a] very highly technical, incredible amount of academic and functional expertise in additive manufacturing, which augments our regional partnerships” Schmitt said. “They also have an aerospace center, which is where this comes into play.”
As a wholly-owned subsid iary of the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Ma chining (NCDMM), AMIIC strives to boost North Alabama’s and the nation’s industry through the ac celeration of adoption of advanced manufacturing technologies and the further development of a highlyskilledAmongworkforce.itsmany offerings is a Training Hub offering a wide variety of hands-on and virtual training opportunities for its gov ernment, industry, technology, and academic partners. In addition to courses in subjects such as Army Policy for Advanced Manufacturing, Introduction to Model-Based Systems Engineering, Basics of Optical Measurement, and Introduction to Additive Manufac turing Workflow, AMIIC offers over 75 online courses and can tailor any curriculum by leveraging academic partners and a national network of technologists.According to AMIIC Execu tive Director John Schmitt, the nonprofit has worked with around a dozen companies so far since its opening in February and has contracts in the works with a number of federalTheorganizations.Training Hub’s newest course offering is the Introduction to Digital Engineering class, taught by industry experts from the Uni versity of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), which runs the Digital Engineering Design Center at AMIIC. During its inaugural session, SAIC Innovation Factory employees made meaning ful connections with AMIIC experts as they learned how to use advanced technologies to streamline the engi neering“Whatprocess.we’re excited about with SAIC doing this is they want to be
WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT
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Schmitt cited a 2019 Deloitte study that outlined a 500,000-per son skilled workforce gap by 2025.
“They’re whooping us in manu facturing in cost and scale,” he said.
“Because Dr. Choudhuri and his [UTEP] faculty have become thought leaders in digital en gineering nationally, we wanted to expand that relationship and that partnership to make sure that we meet DoD’s require ments for one of their digital
WORKFORCE
the Training Hub cours es focus primarily on early and mid-career level professionals, the Digital Engineering Design Cen ter focuses on college students, who Schmitt said came from schools such as Tuskegee, Alabama A&M, and
itthatskillingastechnologicalofsaid,workforce,”priorities–cultureengineeringinSchmittaddingthatalotthechallengesaren’tsomuchcultural.“It’saboutupaworkforcehasneverdonelikethis.Intercon nectedness between everything from business practices to logistics all the way through the design cycle. That’s where digital engineering comes into play. Because of the commodities built here on Redstone–hypersonics, longrange fires, directed energy, counter
UTEP. Schmitt expects around 20 by the end of the semester. Students at the Digital Engineer ing Design Center are paid a stipend so they can focus on their studies.
AMIIC also has plans to work with students from the Alabama School of Cyber Technology and Engineering. “It is absolutely our in tent,” Schmitt said. “ASCTE is not just about cyber–people think cybersecurity, but it’s about engineering lifecycle with cyber in mind. So it’s really important for us to help build some of this curriculum that will bridge the gap from high school skills into this interdisciplin ary digital engineering environment. It’s a lot more complex than a lot of engineering’s been in the past.”
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AMIIC Executive Director John Schmitt
UAS, Future Vertical Lift–we can’t afford to be behind anymore with this Accordingworkforce.”to Schmitt, the growth of digital engineering will help the U.S. compete more effectively against China, which he said is producing systems five times as fast as the U.S. and spending about 5% dollar-fordollar on providing capability to the field.
Houston, TX. “The projects that these students are working on are everything from lunar landers to hy personic waveriders to whatever–very high end exposure but also delivering product and research.”
For more information, visit ami ic.us w
“The way that we get back into the competitive field that we need to be in is to adopt digital engineering, which reduces that developmental cy cle time” Schmitt continued. “Instead of building something physically, you build it digitally, test it, inte grate it all digitally before you ever buildWhileit.”
DEVELOPMENT
“To do digital engineering, it’s so interdisciplinary–you have to have these project-based exercises to really become successful practitioners, and that’s what we’re trying to give these students,” Schmitt said.
Notably, the leisure and hospitality industry—which has felt the effects of the Great Resignation more than any other sector—has been raising wages quickly to keep workers. Leisure and hospitality jobs saw non-adjusted wages increase by more than 10% and adjusted wages increase by 3.5% from the end of 2020 to the end of 2021. But for many other sectors of the economy, inflation has wiped out wage gains completely. Fields including manufacturing, con struction, and education and health services all saw declines in inflationadjusted wages from 2020 to 2021.
The data used in an analysis from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages was used to determine the locations where pay is rising the fast est, researchers at Smartest Dollar—a review website for small business in surance—calculated the non-adjusted percentage change in wages from Quarter 4 of 2020 to Quarter 4 of 2021. In the event of a tie, the loca tion with the greater non-adjusted total change in weekly wages from Quarter 4 of 2020 to Quarter 4 of 2021 was ranked higher. To improve relevance, only met ropolitan areas with at least 100,000 residents were included. Addition ally, metros were grouped into cohorts based on population size: small (100,000–349,999), mid size (350,000–999,999), and large (1,000,000 or more). Note: only lo cations with complete data available during this time period were consid ered in this analysis. While part of the analysis found that average weekly wages in the Huntsville metro area experienced a year-over-year increase of 1.4%. Here is a summary of the data for the Huntsville, AL metro area:
By Ashlyn Grey /
WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT
As a result, nominal wages are grow ing faster than at any point in at least two Butdecades.rising inflation over the course of 2021 and 2022 has taken a bite out of rising wages. Year-over-year infla tion, as measured by the Consumer Price Index, has hovered around or above 8% for much of 2022. Prices for essential expenses like food, shel ter, and energy have skyrocketed due to supply challenges. With prices ris ing so quickly, workers are discovering that their increased pay does not go as far as they had hoped. While nominal wages continue to rise to record heights, inflationadjusted wages have shown signs of decline. In non-adjusted dollars, aver age weekly wages spiked to $1,339 in the last quarter of 2020 and rose again to $1,418 in the last quarter of 2021. But in inflation-adjusted dollars, wag es actually decreased by 0.8% over that span, from $1,429 to $1,418. Non-adjusted wage growth looks strong across the economy, but some industries have done a better job keep ing pace with inflation than others.
Huntsville Sees 1.4% Wage
• Non-adjusted percentage change in wages (YoY): +1.4%
Photos courtesy of Smartest Dollar /
The effects of inflation on wages have also varied by geography. While all 50 states showed at least some in crease in non-adjusted wages between 2020 and 2021, only 13 saw a real increase after adjusting for inflation. And among those, New Hampshire (5.2% inflation-adjusted increase) and Florida (2.8%) stand out as the only states whose workers experienced in flation-adjusted wage increases above 1% from the end of 2020 to the end of 2021.Atthe metro level, most of the cit ies whose workers have fared best in the face of inflation have been boom ing cities like Raleigh, Denver, Austin, and Nashville. These cities have been attracting workers with thriving econ omies that offer ample opportunity for good-paying jobs, along with rela tively low cost of living compared to many other major cities—two factors that can help in beating inflation.
On the surface, the economy of the last two years has been extremely favorable to workers. After spiking to nearly 15% early in the COVID-19 pandemic, the unemployment rate today sits around 3.6%. Despite em ployers’ urgency to hire, labor force participation has been slower to re cover, and the “Great Resignation” has workers quitting at historic rates in search of better jobs. With these factors contributing to a tight labor market, workers have more choice of job opportunities, and more employers have been raising wages to hire and retain employees.
• Inflation-adjusted percentage change in wages (YoY): -4.9%
Increase While Alabama is Ranked with 15th Smallest Wage Increase
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• Non-adjusted total change in
The Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics
WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT weekly wages (YoY): +$20 • Average weekly wages Q4 2021: $1,413 • Average weekly wages Q4 2020: This$1,393analysis also revealed that average weekly wages in Alabama ex perienced a year-over-year increase of 4.9%. However, out of all states, Alabama saw the 15th smallest wage increase during the study period. Here is a summary of the data for Alabama: • Non-adjusted percentage change in wages (YoY): +4.9% • Inflation-adjusted percentage change in wages (YoY): -1.7% • Non-adjusted total change in weekly wages (YoY): +$54 • Average weekly wages Q4 2021: $1,153 • Average weekly wages Q4 2020: For$1,099reference, here are the statistics for the entire United States: • Non-adjusted percentage change in wages (YoY): +5.9% • Inflation-adjusted percentage change in wages (YoY): -0.8% • Non-adjusted total change in weekly wages (YoY): +$79 • Average weekly wages Q4 2021: $1,418 • Average weekly wages Q4 2020: For$1,339more information, a detailed methodology, and complete results, you can find the original report on Smartest Dollar’s website: where-pay-is-rising-fastest-in-2022.smartestdollar.com/research/citie-https:// w September 2022 9
Brasfield and Gorrie served as the general contractor for the project, with Fuqua & Partners providing the architectural design. Located at 1000 Hudson Way on the HudsonAlpha campus, the Greenhouse and Educational Learn ing Labs is the latest addition to the non-profit Institute’s biotech campus and is the only one of its kind in the nation, with two lab spaces, seven grow rooms, and cutting-edge tech nology.The new facility will add sig nificant lab and greenhouse space
HudsonAlpha Institute for Bio technology has a new reason to celebrate: the facility recently cel ebrated the opening of its new 14,000-square-foot state-of-the-art glass greenhouse and laboratory facil ity with a ribbon cutting ceremony featuring Governor Kay Ivey and a host of leaders in government and business across the region.
to HudsonAlpha’s Center for Plant Science and Sustainable Agriculture, further enabling the propagation of research plants to improve existing crops, develop new uses for plants, in crease collaborative efforts with other organizations, and develop low cost tools and genomic sequencing to link plantHudsonAlphagenes.
Photos by Dawn Suiter
By Dawn Suiter
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Lamb noted during his address that there are 1100 people on the HudsonAlpha campus today, “a num ber that continues to grow.”
HudsonAlpha's Growth Continues with New Greenhouse and Educational Space
“These three leaders believe in our vision and have been advocates on our behalf for many years,” Lamb continued. “They are strong allies for Alabama’s scientific researchers and for the bioscience industry, and they have our thanks,” he said.
“Today marks a significant mile stone in our history–the dream of a greenhouse and associated space began nearly seven years ago as we looked to expand our plant-based research faculty,” Lamb explained, noting that they were actively recruit
President Neil Lamb, PhD expressed his gratitude to Governor Ivey for her role in bring ing about the new addition as well as the follow-on phase next door, the Discovery Life Sciences Global Head quarters, which will employ hundreds of Alabamians when it opens next summer.Lamb also thanked Mayor Battle for his support and his commitment to growing the biosciences, “making this industry a central part of Hunts ville’s economy,” as well as Madison County Commissioner Dale Strong for his “leadership to Madison Coun ty and for [his] unswerving dedication to the work of HudsonAlpha.”
TECHNOLOGY 10 Huntsville BUSINESS JOURNAL
“Lonnie and I often talked about all the ways we could use genomics to help mankind, and I know Lonnie would be excited about how Hud sonAlpha is applying its efforts in genomics to agriculture.”
Hudson stated that sequencing is “really hard” for plants, noting that it took four years to sequence cotton and an equal amount for the common bean. “Many, many plants are really, really hard and our team, Jeremy [Schmutz] and Jane [Grim wood], led the way in figuring out the technologies and analysis techniques that are recognized around the world in this field. Now we do cotton in a couple of weeks if we’re starting from scratch, so the advancements are just really“Withremarkable.”thisstate-of-the-art green house and our exceptional faculty, we are positioned to engage with more research partners, to grow Alabama’s existing ag community, and to start AgTech companies that will benefit our farmers,” Hudson continued.
“Our conversations with her highlighted the opportunities that we could pursue with research-focused greenhouses, test fields for applying those discoveries, a demonstration garden and additional spaces for edu cation and workforce development,” Lamb“Sometimessaid. dreams take a while to become a reality. Today, we cut a ribbon and we bring this one to life.” Swaminathan also expressed her gratitude to Gov. Ivey: “We appreciate you entrusting this new greenhouse to us, and we promise we will do good with it for the future of plant science, education, and agriculture in Alabama. We are extremely excited for the future,” she said.
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Hudson also stated that Hud sonAlpha’s new accelerator program, done in partnership with venture capital program gener8tor Huntsville, will bring new companies from out of the state to Alabama.
HudsonAlpha founder Jim Hud son began by extending his thanks to the attendees, noting that today would have been cofounder Lonnie McMillan’s 94th birthday. With deep emotion in his voice, he added “I know he’d be proud of today’s campus and this amazing greenhouse.”
“When most of us think about HudsonAlpha’s work, they think about how we’re using genomics to improve human health,” Hud son said. “Well, we’ve been remiss, I think, in explaining to the public how much we do in plants and have done from the very beginning.”
In addition, HudsonAlpha continues to grow. “Lonnie and I set a goal [of] 3,000 jobs on this campus and we’re well on our way to getting there,” Hudson said, adding that by this time next year Gov ernor Ivey will be back to cut the ribbon on the new Discovery Life Sci ences building next door, “one of our best success stories from on the cam pus. DLS, when they open next year, will have a thousand employees from around the world in 80 countries and hundreds here on the campus. It’s an amazing success story.” “What we’re celebrating today is what’s possible when we look for ways to actively look for ways to utilize and strengthen our public-private part nerships,” said Gov. Ivey. “This facility is a key to attracting new researchers while also inspiring the next generation of plant scientists.”Ivey credited Dr. Lamb with getting the state’s STEM Council up and running. “With out the help of everyone here today Alabama would not be making such important and nec essary strides in STEM education, which we all know is so critical for our state’s con tinuedIveysuccess.”noted that Alabama has a long history of scientific innovation and stressed the need to continue looking to the future. “We must work together to solve the problems that others deemed impossible to solve. Let’s work to not only move Alabama forward, but also the entire world. Together we can ensure that Alabama will lead the way in innovation. This greenhouse marks yet another excit ing chapter in HudsonAlpha’s success story,” she concluded.
ing faculty investigator Kankshita Swaminathan, PhD at that time.
“These are companies that listen to their employees and they listen to feedback and they Implement that feedback,’’ Aiello said. “They listen to what their employees think could be better. They make it a priority to lis ten to their team members who want to work with you. You know, you want to work in a place that does that, you want to work in a place that val ues your opinion and your feedback and improves. So these companies do that, they care about their employees, they work with them on family mat ters.’’Aiello added that is a key ingredi ent to those honored by Best Places to Work.“These are companies who put family first,’’ she said. “They under stand the parents have concerns with their kids and the company, they work with them. They need some time to be with their children or with their family, but still get the job done. It's just a variety of things that companies do. They listen to their employees about what could be better and they implement change.’’ Aiello added that these companies go beyond to make their employees want to “Throughoutstay. the year, they get Award winning company Thompson Grey, Inc.
• Medium: KODA Technologies Inc., Invariant Corporation, Tri vector Services Inc.
• Large: Avion, NTA Inc., Thomp son Gray Inc.
By Mike Easterling /
Huntsville/Madison County Companies at Best Places
Fifteen of the nearly 100 busi nesses represented were honored with awards this week by the Huntsville/ Madison County Chamber along with two companies inducted into the “Best Places to Work’’ Hall of Fame.
Winners in Gold, Silver and Bronze were honored in five sepa rate categories along with HOF laurels awarded to Modern Technol ogy Solutions and PeopleTec. Those two joined Intuitive Research & Technology Corporation, which was inducted into the inaugural class in 2021.HOF inductees are compa nies who have been awarded for 10 straight years in the Chamber’s Best Places to Work award ceremony’s 15year history. Companies selected to the HOF are not eligible to enter the awards contest for at least three years to give others opportunities to win.
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COVERCOVER
“It's been a good tool for compa nies to use over the years, to improve their culture, to help with employee relations and employee retention,’’ said Claire Aiello, the Chamber’s Vice President of Marketing and Commu nications.Awards were given in five divi sions based on number of employees – Micro (10-24), Small (25-50), Me dium (51-100), Large (101-250) and X-Large“This(251-plus).isoneofour favorite events of the year,’’ said Ashley Engles-Ross, the Chamber’s Vice President of Small Business. “It is wonderful to celebrate companies who value their employees and their feedback – they truly care about creating a culture to make their workplaces inviting and productive. It sets a real example for others to follow, in terms of making these com panies places where employees want to stay for the long run.’’
• Micro: Peterman and Sons Solu tions, JS Solutions LLC, Systems Technology and Research Inc.
Winners were chosen based on employee surveys returned to the Chamber and tabulated by Quantum Workplace. Winners in each category are listed gold, silver and bronze:
• X-Large: IronMountain Solu tions, Integration Innovation Inc., Radiance Technologies Inc.
Photos by Huntsville/Madison
• Small: Phased n Research Inc., Crossflow Technologies, Mission Drive Research
STORYSTORY County Chamber Honors Local Places to Work Awards
HOF company MTSI was Executive Vice President Tim“MTSIKing. is extremely honored to be a Best Place to Work in the great city of Huntsville and to be inducted into the Huntsville/Madison County Chamber’s Best Places to Work Hall of Fame. We want to acknowledge our peers and business partners in the Huntsville community. Thank you to the Chamber and Quantum Work place for facilitating these surveys," said“MostKing importantly, thank you to all of my co-workers at MTSI for fos tering our culture where employees come first, where we truly own and solve our customers’ problems and where we live by our core values."
Huntsville/Madison County Chamber of Commerce feedback when they do an employee survey. That's how (Best Places to Work) is kind of graded. Employees fill out a survey – more than eight thousand or this year.’’ Synovus, represented by Beth Sip pel, was the presenting sponsor. The North Alabama chapter of the Society for Human Research Management (NASHRM) was a partner in the event.PeopleTec was a Gold sponsor. Silver sponsors included KODA, Radiance Technologies, Torch Tech nologies, Integrated Innovation (i3) and Modern Technology Solutions Inc. (MTSI). Bronze sponsors includ ed 4M Research, Cepeda Systems and Software Analysis, Guidehouse, Hill Technical Solutions, Hyde Homes, QTEC Aerospace, Redstone Federal Credit Union and Redstone Govern mentRepresentingConsulting.
PeopleTec, an employee-owned company, was represented by CEO Terry“ItJennings.isaprivilege and honor to be voted a Best Place to Work for over 10 years by our employee-own ers,’’ he said. “PeopleTec provides top-tier benefits and an exceptional workplace culture where the best and the brightest want to work. Our employee-Owners champion the mis sion to support the Warfighter and offer their technical expertise to im prove our nation’s defense.
“We firmly believe that if we work together and we're all in the same di rection, we're going to get there a lot faster and a lot more effectively than if we all just, you know, try to do it ourselves,’’ Aiello said. “And this is the thing for our board of directors as well. We've really tried to be engaged on things together. When we go to elected leaders, whether it be a state legislature issue or a congress thing, you know, going to our Congress man, going through the Senators, we really try to go with a united voice. “That is reflected in our state and federal agendas that we prepare every year, we really try to go with a United voice to ask for something or or you know, you're, you know, work on an issue together.’’ That’s a theme that has worked for Huntsville over decades.
“You're just going to get there a lot more quickly and that goes back to the days of our space program,’’ Ai ello said. “What we have done over the years – to get man to the Moon here in Huntsville. That was an exam ple that the rocket team did, they’ve solved some very tough problems over the years.
“So that's kind of been our mind set here. We believe that and we want to keep that tradition going, where if we row in the same direction we're go ing to get there a lot faster. Whether it be infrastructure challenges or work force challenges, we try to attack the problem as a team and I think that really helps us get past hurdles.’’
“They do it well and we want to honor them with this Hall of Fame,’’ she said.The Chamber’s efforts are just part of the picture for the Huntsville and surrounding communities that grow by the day.
For more information, please visit hsvchamber.org. w Hall of Fame inductee MTSIAward winning company Iron Mountain Solutions, Inc. Hall of Fame inductee PeopleTec
September 2022 13
“PeopleTec is proud to be induct ed into the Best Places to Work Hall of Fame this year in recognition of our dedication to our employees and customers. We will continue to work hard for our employee-owners’ vote of confidence.’’Aiellosaid companies supporting Best Places to Work use the surveys returned to improve their business model and recruit employees. She said companies like MTSI and Peo pleTec have figured out how to use the employee surveys to improve.
The idea seems fantastic – athletic footwear as an alternative asset. The business of sneakers, or as most people in the South call them tennis shoes regardless of where they’ll be worn, is changing. In a story that appeared on the media platform Front Office Sports this spring, Liam Killingstad wrote: “You can’t even really call ‘sneak erheads’ a subculture at this point. The current U.S. sneaker resale mar ket is estimated at $2 billion but expected to blow up 15 times that to $30 billion by 2030. One of the main reasons: value appreciation. Sneakers are increasingly viewed as an alterna tive question is – how so?
‘Sneakerheads’ Moving from Subculture to Business Mainstream
Theasset.’’burning
•
“Most peo ple that come in every day are not runners,’’ said Suzzane Taylor, owner of sneaker specialty shop Fleet Feet at Valley Bend on Carl T. Jones Dr. and on Hughes Road in “AboutMadison.95or90 percent of our customers are not run ners.’’While Fleet Fleet caters to run ners and walkers, much of their business comes from people looking for a comfortable shoe.
• The most recent trend is access to investments in culture—new as set classes like sneakers. Those facts are likely foreign to many ‘sneakerheads.’ What’s not alien to that particular group is a sim ple concept. They like tennis shoes.
“On an everyday basis people are looking for shoes to work out in, or go to Disney World in,’’ Taylor said. “They’re going on a trip or their feet hurt at work.’’ Not all sneaker purchases are for comfort. Fashion also plays a big part in footwear selection. While On Cloud is the fashion go-to among the younger customers at Fleet Feet, at urban-oriented City Gear the Air Jordan Retros, Nike Air Force and Kappa slides are popular. City Gear, at 2250 Sparkman Dr. NW Suite 1400, is partnered with Hibbett
“We’reSports.pretty much about fashion when it comes to sneakers,’’ City Gear Manager Siabhan Flowers said. Business of footwear Statista’s published report on the athletic footwear market indicating that the global “athletic footwear mar ket” reached $127.3 billion in 2021. The sneaker industry, however, is recovering from supply chain issues that arose in the wake of the COV ID-19 pandemic that stifled market growth. The disruption in the supply chain was felt globally and drove up
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
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Over the past several years, By Mike Easterling / Photos by Steve Babin there’s been a “democratization” of access to investments in tradi tional alternative assets: startups, investment funds, real estate.
• Alternative assets can most broadly be defined as those that fall outside the traditional defini tion of stocks, bonds, or currency investments.
As for the business of sneakers, Killingstad wrote that “Platforms such as Alt, SNKRS, Rally Rd, Otis, and GOAT not only allow individu als to purchase a new asset class in a curated manner, but also allow for fractionalized ownership of those very sameRegardingassets.’’ Non-Refundable To kens (NFTs), Killingstad wrote: “Asics recently partnered with Web3 company STEPN to debut a new line of NFT sneakers that allow owners to earn crypto by moving— aptly referred to as move-to-earn.”
• The company raised $5 million from Sequoia Capital and others, as Play-to-earnwell. games such as “Axie Infinity” received outsized attention in 2021. Fitness-focused companies like STEPN appear to be emerging next.’’ Sneakers as just sneakers Many ‘sneakerheads’ have vast collections of shoes. Many are for function, many are for fashion. And the desire to collect footwear knows no athletic sphere of cultural bounds. Aficiona dos of tennis, basketball, cleat-based sports and others like to amass foot wear options, including runners and fashionistas.Taylorand one of her assistants guessed they had around 35-40 ath letic shoes. A few are for running, the others are for simply walking around. “And we rotate them,’’ Taylor said. “We get rid of the ones we’re not wearing.’’Editor’s note: To view the Front Office Sports story regarding sneak erheads visit er-economy/.com/a-top-down-view-of-the-sneakhttp.frontofficesports.
w BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT September 2022 15
Flowers said City Gear, which is merged with Hibbett Sporting Goods,“We’reagreed.back on track,’’ she said.
delivery and retail costs. Those problems appear to be waning.“We’re in a good position now,’’ Taylor told the Huntsville Business Journal for an earlier story. “All of the shoe manufacturers, for the most part, they may be like three weeks be hind on delivery but not six months.’’
Like play-to-earn, the move-toearn model rewards users in native cryptocurrency for their step count, which is tracked by a GPS-enabled mobile app. As outlandish as the concept might sound, the company has trac tion.•According to CoinDesk, STEPN earned $26 million in the first quarter of 2022.
• Per Chief Business Officer Shiti Manghani, the company had 100,000 daily active users as of mid-March, with more than 1 million downloads in total.
“It will be in downtown Hunts ville,’’ Madison County Commission Chairman Dale Strong said at the State of the County address at the Von Braun Center South Hall. “ We’re looking at multiple options, but it will be downtown.’’
The current courthouse sits atop caverns that are part of nearby Big Spring. Strong said trying to pile drive into the surface for a new building is prohibitive, so the build ing will be razed. Plans for the land once the build
16 Huntsville BUSINESS JOURNAL
New County Courthouse Among Topics at State of the County Address
Renovating the current court house – which has no hot water, amongfaults,its and with maintenance and energy costs rising yearly – would be too expensive. Chapman Sisson, the architectural firm that designed
Huntsville’s downtown square has always been centered by the Madison County Courthouse. That will no longer be true once a site has been determined to build a new courthouse. And while the des tination for the new building that will replace an outdated courthouse that was built in 1964 has not been decided, one thing is certain.
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
By Mike Easterling / Image courtesy of Fentress Architects ing is gone have yet to be determined, but Strong has one suggestion: “It would be great to have a green space in down town,’’ he Strongsaid.added that the county commission would work closely with Mayor Tommy Battle and Downtown Hunts ville, Inc., in finding a site and building the new courthouse. Keeping the courthouse in down town Huntsville is the obvious“Tenchoice.years ago, we had a lot of boarded up buildings in Huntsville,’’downtownStrong said. “That is definitely not the case. It’s thriv ing. You look at the apartments, the living space, the eateries. This is something special with what we have in downtown Huntsville. We only want to make it better.’’
Strong then moved on to dis cuss the recent environmental review of Huntsville for the relocation of Space Command. He said the U.S. General Accounting office and the Air Force completed reviews of the decision to move the Space Force command from Colorado to Red stone and that “we won it fair and square.’’ He cited quality of life, cost of living, short commute times, top notch schools, costs to build and maintain and because Redstone Ar senal leadership was “ready to make it happen’’ as reasons the command is relocating.“Hopefully, we can now shift the focus to where it needs to be – go ing vertical on these facilities and standing up a new command as quickly and efficiently as possible,’’ StrongStrongsaid. also mentioned various transportation projects. Deals struck between the federal government and that state include clearing up troubling spots on I-565, High way 72 and University Drive and HighwayStrong53.mentioned that represen tative support was a major factor in these recent achievements and ad vancements for Madison County. Representatives from Limestone County, Decatur, Athens, Scotts boro and Rogersville were among the guests at the luncheon.
“There is a common bond across North Alabama,’’ Strong said. “Local leaders have seen the value of work ing together as a region and know that when we stick together the sky truly is not the limit.’’
the Madison County Service Center at the corner of Oakwood Avenue and Memorial Parkway North, esti mated renovations would run at least $60“Whichmillion. doesn’t make business sense,’’ Strong said. “So we’re going to look at other options.’’ He added that he hopes to introduce a plan to the county commission in “the next few Manymonths.’’offices that were previously housed at the courthouse – licensing, tax assessor and collector, board of registrars and probate judge – have relocated to the Madison County Service Center. Meanwhile, court caseloads are rising along with the county’s population boom and a new building would provide more courtroom space. An eighth judge – Patrick Tuten – was recently ap pointed to the 23rd Circuit by Governor kay Ivey. “We’ve needed a lot of addi tional courtroom space,’’ Strong said. “We’ve added another judge, and we’re having to build a tempo rary courtroom right now. Our hope is that we can build something that will not only take care of what we need today but also the days ahead.’’
And, with support from Gov ernor Ivey and numerous local and state colleges and universities, Hud sonAlpha is building a new plant testing facility that will focus on re searching genomes that will combat disease and lead to creating droughtresistant crops. To conclude, the State of the County address, Strong listed some of the successes he’s seen in 10 years as county chairman: More than 30,000 NEW jobs, diversified the economy through advanced manufacturing, secured building for transportation proj ects, an expanded sewer, protected drinking water, expanded hikingbike path connectivity, brought rocket engine testing back to Red stone, built Toyota Field and Orion Amphitheater, greatly reduced un employment and created better publicForeducation.Strong, these cases of recent success only further “posi tion North Alabama not only for today, but also for generations to come’’ as the focal point of Alabama. w
Strong said Madison Coun ty’s caseload per judge “still leads the “Butstate.’’the 23rd Circuit has never used that as an excuse,’’ he added. “Our process works well. I wouldn’t swap where we live for anything.’’
September 2022 17
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
Dr. Clevenger also mentioned Bridgeforth Farms as a particular in
The First Street Foundation released a peer-reviewed report in dicating that areas experiencing “extreme dangerous” heat - defined by the National Weather Service as a heat index over 125 degrees - will grow drastically over the next thirty years. Indeed, projections outline a Surviving the Swelter: Adapting Agribusiness to a Changing Climate
It isn’t alarmist to sound an alarm in response to a genuine problem.
By Marie Johnson Graphics courtesy of First Street Foundation wide swath of the Continental Unit ed States, from Texas and the Gulf States sweeping up as far north as the Great Lakes, forming a kind of “ex treme heat belt.” By 2053, more than 100 million Americans would be directly affected by extreme heat conditions in this area. But the impact on agriculture could prove even more devastating, with food security across the country at risk.
Worse,Fahrenheit.climatologists report that these conditions are likely to grow more severe, and affect the state for longer each year.
ECONOMY 18 Huntsville BUSINESS JOURNAL
This past summer, Alabama stewed in successive heatwaves, prompting the National Weath er Service to repeatedly issue heat advisories to warn people of the haz ards posed by the stifling summer temperatures.The‘heat index’ - the combina tion of ambient temperature and humidity - repeatedly breached 100 degrees
The Huntsville Business Jour nal spoke with Dr. Josh Clevenger, a plant geneticist at the agricultural and bioscience concern, HudsonAl pha, about the challenges that climate change poses to agribusiness, and possible solutions to them. These issues can include the ex acerbation of crop infestations, such as the Aspergillus fungus, which can produce a dangerous neurotoxin un der drought conditions. Farmers may have to adjust when they plant their crops to compensate for scorchinghot summers, perhaps even planting in the winter so that the crops can be harvested before truly intense heat or droughtAttainingstrikes.sufficient water for agricultural needs has always been a high priority for farmers, whose op erating margins are notoriously tight.
The ability to innovate and rap idly adapt is what will enable farms and other agribusinesses to survive these changing conditions.
“Just because temperatures change, that doesn’t mean that every year is the same,” said Dr. Clevenger. “For pea nut growing, 2019 was a really bad year for aflatoxin, while last year was the best peanut yield in the Southeast that anyone could remember, because the conditions were just right.”
novator in the field of agriculture. As profiled before in the Huntsville Business Journal, Bridgeforth Farms is a national leader in the adoption of new technologies to make farm ing more efficient. The combination of high-tech computerized soil monitors with buried drip-irrigation systems allow Bridgeforth Farms to react rapidly to changing weather and soil conditions, and to do so with the precise amount of water necessary.
“It’s not irrational to be concerned,” said Dr. Clevenger. “I will say that, as someone who is rela tively young in the field of science, the difference in what we can do now versus what we could do even just back in 2013 is pretty incredible. We can find natural variation in plant species, and instead of cross-pollination, we can go through thousands and thousands of lines of DNA, rapidly, and introduce those traits…Being concerned is good, as innovation requires dollars, but it may not be common knowledge that we have this huge network of USDA scientists that are doing just great work, across the country, to ad dress these problems.“ The challenges are real, and not just for the agricultural industry. But our capacity to meet these challenges has never been greater. The alarm is rung, but that isn’t the signal to panic, or to give in to despair. It’s the signal to get to work to solve the problem, and with the genetic expertise of labs like HudsonAlpha and the practical innovation of businesses like Bridge forth Farms, North Alabama can set a strong example for the rest of the na tion to follow in the days to come. w
ECONOMY September 2022 19
Sequencing DNA to isolate use ful properties in certain plant breeds can enable the isolation and swift integration of those traits into crop populations. “Diversity is the name of the game, providing our growers with a wide array of dif ferent plants that they need to sustain us.”
EMPLOYMENT EDPA Announces New Alabama Business Intelligence Center
“Economic development is not any different, and I am completely confident that the Alabama Business Intel ligence Center will be able to provide the needed business intelligence so Alabama can continue to build on its eco nomic development success.”
By Ashlyn Grey Photos courtesy of EDPA Site Selection Magazine’s annual Governor’s Cup analysis. With the development of the ABIC comes optimism for growth and employ mentAdditionally,opportunities.Lauren Hyde, who serves as the first Executive Director of the Alabama Business Intelligence Center, also offered ex pertise through the official release, discussing viewing certain aspects through an investment lens. As a
The Economic Development Partnership of Alabama has recent ly announced the development of the Alabama Business Intelligence Center. The Alabama Business Intel ligence Center generates actionable data insights for the recruitment and retention of Alabama businesses. Its initial areas of focus include in dustries, companies, and executives that align with Alabama’s value proposition.Inanstatement, the EDPA stated that the purpose and re sourcefulness of the new center is “to increase business develop ment leads, strengthen partnerships through intelligence and resources, collaborate with allies and partners to unlock insights from the combina tion of quantitative and qualitative information, and position Alabama as a partner for business growth and investment. The Center envisions being a thought-leader on Alabama business and industry trends. It will augment EDPA’s partners’ current work and further position Ala bama’s value proposition.”
“Every business sector is in creasingly dependent upon quality business intelligence to develop ac tionable strategies,” said Barker. “Economic development is not any different, and I am completely con fident that the Alabama Business Intelligence Center will be able to provide the needed business intel ligence so Alabama can continue to build on its economic development success.”In2021, Alabama was ranked ninth in job-creating economic development projects per capita in
20 Huntsville BUSINESS JOURNAL
Greg Barker, President of the EDPA, explained that Alabama Business Intelligence Center is the first comprehensive, statewide research hub of its kind, both proac tively mitigating risk and identifying opportunities for targeted business growth and development with the goal of securing new investment throughout the state.
CFA® charter holder, Hyde is both well-versed in public and private company“Successresearch.forthe Alabama Busi ness Intelligence Center looks like success for our partners,” Hyde stated. “ABIC will utilize a riskreturn framework of thinking when analyzing opportunities. We are committed to long-term in vestment in Alabama. It’s not just dollars, incentives, or time. It’s jobs and infrastructure. And we’re here to generate the actionable data in sights needed to encourage this investment.”TheABIC will work with the EDPA business development team and partners to execute projects for lead generation across the state. Additionally, ABIC will serve as a resource to the Alabama Depart ment of Commerce – the State’s economic development leader. ABIC will also support Oppor tunity Alabama and its statewide partners to generate data-informed interventions to build economic re silience in underserved communities, as they recover from the impacts of COVID-19.According to Alex Flachsbart, Founder and CEO of Opportunity Alabama, ABIC will be a critical partner in the implementation of this initiative, which is funded by a CARES Act Recovery Assistance grant received in 2021 from the U.S. Economic Development Ad ministration.“Inorder to execute substantive, place-based strategic interventions, we need to understand local com munities in a data-driven way, and ABIC will allow us to do just that,” stated Flachsbart. “We are fortu nate to have someone of Lauren’s caliber providing actionable busi ness intelligence statewide and grateful to the Economic Develop ment Administration for supporting this Foreffort.”more information on the Alabama Business Intelligence Center, please visit http://www.AL bicenter.org/ w
September 2022 21
According to Jimmy Jenkins, Presi dent, Defense Sector at BlueHalo, the company sets itself apart from its com petitors in several ways.
By Mike Easterling /
Latest Missile, Aerospace Technologies
DEFENSE 2022 SMD Symposium Showcases
Photos by Mike Easterling and SMD Symposium across our company being together.
There’s one less helicopter hover ing above a mountain range, courtesy of BlueHalo’s Virtual Stinger Trainer and the author of this story with some help from Haden Downey. It only took one shot from the company’s man-held missile system from inside the Von Braun Center’s SouthBlueHaloHall. had one of seemingly countless booths and information blocks set up at the VBC for the annual Space and Missile Defense Symposium at the VBC Aug. 9-11. This symposium, which fea tured over 200 exhibitors in 2021, provides companies with the oppor tunity to showcase technology and products to the Space and Missile Defense Command, Aviation and Missile Command, NASA, Corps of Engineers, the State of Alabama and otherBlueHalo,corporations.which is headquar tered in Arlington, Va., but locally located at 401 Jan Davis Drive NW, bills itself as “purpose-built to provide industry-leading capabilities in the key mission areas of Space Technolo gies, Directed Energy, Air and Missile Defense, C$ISR, CNO, Multi-INT and HartselleHealthcare.native
Young said BlueHalo has a “huge’’ presence in Huntsville and also Al buquerque, NM., and Colorado.
“We’re different in the sense that we’re more agile, quicker and cheaper, so that’s kind of our niche I would say. For example, we do all this missile work and assembly at our Huntsville location.
“BlueHalo has a large scope of projects and programs across multiple sectors, but we also partner on con tracts with other companies alongside us here at SMD–working together to innovate for the future and protect our nation and warfighters.”
Ashley Young, the Public Relations Specialist for Blue Halo, said the symposium was “about building relationships with other industry partners, customers, and gov ernment within the industry. And as a team, just having everybody here from
“We’re a team of seven people. So if customers need a missile, we can do it pretty quickly whereas the bigger guys would be millions of dol lars and months long and all of that kind of stuff. We’re able to do stuff quick and Amongagile.’’the featured speakers at the symposium was General Jim Dick inson of SPACECOM and Major General Sean A. Gainey, who repre sented Counter Unmanned Aerial Systems (CUAS). The event was brought to attendees by ASMDA, NDIA Tennessee Valley and ADAA RSA/Huntsville Chapter. Sponsors BlueHalo,included:CACI, Unanet, BAE Systems, Deloitte, Dynetics, SAIC, Parsons, Northrop-Gruman, Boeing, Raytheon Technologies (Platinum); SMX, Mercury, Epirus, Spirit Aerosystems, ASRC Federal, Bradley, Bank of America, Torch Technolo gies, Teledyne Technologies (Gold), Axient, M3, CAES, Battelle, Ris konnect, deciBel Research, Koda Technologies, Bigbear.AI, Gen eral Dynamics, IERUS, Linquest, HTS, AWS, Equator, Sentar, Intrepid, CFD Research, Boecore, Venturi, Radiance Technologies, PeopleTec, Nlogic, Intuitive, DESE Research, Davidson (Silver), Yulis ta, SMX, Government Matters, DefenseNews, MFGS, TecMasters, IPTA, asmartplace, Cohesion Force, Calibre, Draper, HTS, Aerojet Rock etdyne, UAH, L3Harris, Penta Research (Patrons). w
Madison County last month - $391k - is still be low the national average, as reported by the National Asso ciation of Realtors, but only just. With the national average sitting at $410,600, the gap in housing cost is Withshrinking.homesspending an aver age of 11 days on the market in Madison County last month, sales are still brisk, but slowing just a bit from June’s 8-day average. With inventory and list ing periods more in-line with pre-pandemic levels, it appears that the Huntsville-Madison County real estate market has gone into a slightly less frenetic, but still quite brisk growth. It’s the sort of growth more typical of Above left shows the real estate market of Huntsville Madison County. Above right shows the combined market of Limestone, Dekalb, Etowah, Cherokee, Jackson, Marshall, and Madison counties a city experiencing something of a boom instead of the aberrant, more unstable growth that came about as a result of destabilizing market disruptions and panic buying. w
22 Huntsville BUSINESS JOURNAL
The Huntsville Area Asso ciation of Realtors’ report for the month of July has been released. These figures suggest that the reverberations of the pandemic disruptions to the residential real estate market have largely set tled802out. homes sold in Madison County last month, down from 930 sold in July of 2021, and even a bit below the 863 sold in July of 2019, the last year before the Coronavirus pandemic. There were 1,273 homes on the market, almost twice the available invento ry of the previous year, and closer to the 1,231 reported available in 2019.Ofparticular interest is that the average sales price of a home in
ESTATE
REAL
Real Estate Update: A Return to Pre-Pandemic Market Conditions
Photo courtesy of Huntsville Area Association of Realtors
By Marie Johnson /
Mike Banks Joins Regional Builders, Inc. as Director of Construction Regional Builders Inc., a division of NAI Chase Commercial Real Estate Services, an nounced today that Mike Banks has joined the firm as Director of Construction for the com pany’s offices in Huntsville and Birmingham.
“We are delighted to welcome Mike to the team,” said Charles Grelier, Jr., President of NAI Chase Commercial. “Mike’s background and depth of knowledge of our communities make him extremely qualified for this position.” Banks will be responsible for managing all construction operations and opportu nities in Huntsville and in Birmingham.
“This is a great opportunity for me, and I’m very excited about the growth potential for Regional Builders,” Banks said. “We want to continue to brand Regional Builders as a premier general contractor for the state.”
“Our success is often directly related to completing our projects on time and under budget,” Banks said. “We’ll continue to make customer satisfaction our No. 1 objective.”
Banks has more than 40 years of experience in the construction in dustry as well as related fields. Prior to joining Regional Builders, Banks co-founded a local heating and air conditioning business, later served as an operations and project manager for a local property management and real estate development company, and also served as the general manager for a large HVAC company.
Lori will work with social media and graphic design team mem bers, as well as hospitality industry partners, to continue positioning Huntsville, Madison, and Madison County as top visitor destina tions and meeting sites. For more information, contact CVB Executive Vice President Charles Winters at (256) 551-2235 or via email at cwinters@hunts ville.org.
Lori Leonard Selected as Director of Marketing for CVB After 25 years in the Greater Birming ham area, Lori Leonard has returned to North Alabama where she now holds the position of Director of Marketing at the Huntsville/Madison County Convention & Visitors Bureau (CVB). After graduating from the University of North Alabama with a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing, Lori served as the Executive Director for several non-profit organizations including the Home wood Chamber of Commerce, Leadership Hoover, and Leadership Trussville. She also served in marketing leadership roles at various for-profit entities and ran a successful consulting business for many years.In her new role at the CVB, Lori will oversee the promotional and advertising efforts of the agency as well as various campaigns.
Banks is a Huntsville native and is well known throughout the con tracting industry as a top relationship builder through the range of responsibilities he has overseen.
RECOGNITIONS September 2022 23
24 Huntsville BUSINESS JOURNAL
