GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT

By Tony Centonze

Bill Hagerty has achieved business success locally, nationally, and internationally. Success that led him to economic advisory positions with former Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam, and current U.S. President, Donald Trump, as well as an Ambassadorship to Japan. Certainly, a long way from where he began, on a small farm in Sumner County.

Hagerty’s family had cattle and pigs. His father worked road construction. Hagerty actually worked on a road crew when he got older. A job that helped him pay his way at Vanderbilt University. “I was lucky to get to do that,” Hagerty said. “My dad didn’t graduate from college, but he worked hard, so I could have that opportunity. It was challenging. I was a public school kid, but I worked really hard and wound up graduating Phi Beta Kappa. That allowed me to go to work for a firm I would have never imagined. I counted; I had been to all of 7 states at that time. I went to work for Boston Consulting Group (BCG), a big international firm. With them, I ended up working on five continents.”

“Sometimes, getting the government out of the way is the best thing you can do for the economy,” Hagerty said. “I was good at math and had a business background. I started working on putting cost benefit analyses to regulations. Many regulations don’t stand up to that scrutiny, so we didn’t let them go through. The White House can do that. That was a great learning experience.”

From there, Hagerty went into venture capital and private equity, He invested in a number of companies that you might have heard of, some of the big movers in the early internet age.“I was fortunate to have a successful business career, and that was the foundation for me in 2011, when Gov. Haslam called on me and a couple of others to come in and help out,” Hagerty said. “In January of 2011 I got called to run Tennessee’s Department of Economic and Community Development.”

When Hagerty took the job, Tennessee’s unemployment rate was above the national average, and there was a significant budget deficit, over $1,000,000,000.

“Gov. Haslam asked everyone running a department or agency to take a hard look at their budgets, and see where we could find ways to save money. I went first, because of my business background. A small team helped me. We went through everything in about 30 days, and on day 45 we implemented a reduction of staff by about 40%. It wasn’t that people were doing anything wrong, or not adding value, we were just at a point where we couldn’t justify those staffing levels, and activities. We cut it down significantly, and saved millions of dollars on a recurring basis.” “I just did what any business person would do. I looked at the organization and said, we have to get more effective. So, we went to a regional structure and put people in the field in nine different regions. We wanted them working more closely with local officials, and local companies. That’s how we need to grow the economy, by getting closer to the real economy.”

“So, we ended the concentration of staff in the Tennessee Tower, and moved to a regional structure. Then we started recruiting. During my tenure as Commissioner, Tennessee became the #1 state in the nation for creating jobs through foreign investment, and we were named State of the Year for Economic Development, twice.”

Hagerty and his team proved that leaders can come in, restructure, save millions of dollars and get

better performance. They put an ROI (Return on Investment) perspective on everything they did. Hankook Tire was one of his last initiatives.

“There are lots of changes I would like to see, especially in the rural areas,” Hagerty said. “That’s one of my goals, if I’m fortunate enough to be elected to the United States Senate, I want to continue to help our rural areas.”

Hagerty says he is pleased with the direction that Governor Bill Lee and Commissioner Rolfe are taking. They have continued Tennessee’s momentum. “Tennessee, before the pandemic hit, was probably #1, #2 or #3 on any measure, GDP growth, wage rate growth, unemployment rates. Tennessee is doing very well. We demonstrated we can change the perspective, and get good results.”

Hagerty held the Commissioner’s post from 2011 – 2014. He left at the beginning of 2015, going back to the private sector. There, he served on the boards of U.S. Stock Exchange, and NASDAQ traded companies.

“I started seeing what was happening in the presidential race,” Hagerty said. “I wound up volunteering full time for six months in 2016. That led me onto Trump’s transition team, as a volunteer. When it came time to decide what I would do. God’s plan took over again. The President sent me back to a place I had been sent decades before. "

"With my economic development experience and my time in Japan, it made sense to me and the President. He asked me to become the U.S. Ambassador to Japan. I did the job from 2017 – 2019, and it was an amazing honor.”

Hagerty is optimistic about Tennessee’s post-pandemic recovery. “I think we can bounce back faster than most states,” Hagerty said. “Governor Lee was one of the first Governors to step up and begin the reopening process, which for many reasons has to happen as soon as possible, obviously we have to be safe as we do it, but it’s important to get our economy going again as quickly as possible.”

“I saw, in Tennessee, at this point, 33 people are adversely affected economically for every one person affected by the virus health-wise. There has been a much broader economic impact, because we essentially shutdown the entire economy of the state. Getting reopened was critical.”

“I’ve been put back to work on The White House Economic Recovery Task Force, which is hoping to bring Tennessee and America back to work. We have members across the country advising the President. My focus is on Tennessee, because that’s where my experience is.”

Hagerty says he shared with the president what he has seen here in Tennessee.

“In Tennessee, the rural areas have been lightly touched by the virus, but heavily impacted by the economic shutdown, and not all states, counties or cities are the same,” Hagerty said. “The president gets that. He knows you can’t base a decision on what to do with the entire nation on what is happening in New York.”

“I helped provide input into the phased structure reopening that every Governor and every Mayor can use, and modify to their local needs. I’ve even talked to pastors who have used that same framework for their church. It’s meant to be a structure to get us moving again."

“Another reason for a quick recovery in our state is the fundamental attractiveness of Tennessee as a place to do business. We have a very friendly business climate; we have a great location. We’re a right-to-work state with low tax rates. That all combines to Hagerty says he’s working hard now to get more companies to move back home to America.

“I hope we’ll be making recovery by November, but my sense is there will be a lot to do,” Hagerty said. “I’ve put out a plan, I think the first step is another wave of deregulation. I believe that, strongly. I’ve seen how the regulatory morass in Washington can complicate business, and slow down our economy. We’ve already seen things happen, for example in the FDA approval processes. Why would we need to go back to the old way, if we’ve found a way to do it simpler and faster.”

“We have to figure out as best we can, ways to continue to ease the regulatory burden on America. Next, we need to take a hard look at the corporate tax rate. We had the least competitive corporate tax rate in the world when we were at 35%. The 2017 tax act moved that to 21%. Now it’s competitive, not the most attractive by any means, but I want to look at the tax code very hard to find ways to incentivize more capital investment in America.”

Hagerty is confident that with a deregulatory perspective, more favorable tax treatment, and other things, like workforce training and capital investment will continue to grow.

“I applaud that Governor Lee is focused on helping our rural areas get more occupational training in colleges of applied technology and community colleges,” Hagerty said.

“Tennessee’s workforce is a real asset, and can be an even greater asset in the future. I support all movement in that direction. We will be stronger than other states, and we will again see more market-share moving to Tennessee.”