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April 3, 2009
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NVTC
Meets the Candidates
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We're glad Zuckerman Spaeder chairman Graeme Bush reminded us: All tennis nuts and youth education supporters should join us in attending or sponsoring the GEICO Champions Celebration, a terrific two event May 21-22, benefiting the Junior Champion Tennis Center in College Park, this year including dinner at the Australian ambassador's home and honors for Stan Smith, Martin Blackman, and Craig Tiley.
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This morning, we were at the NVTC Town Hall Forum where four Virginia Gubernatorial hopefuls—State Sen. Creigh Deeds, former DNC Chair Terry McAuliffe, former state Attorney General Bob McDonnell and former delegate Brian Moran—took part in a Q&A.
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Didn't election season just end? It might feel that way, but NVTC still packed the house at Microsoft's Reston offices.
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Creigh says he wants to retool community colleges to train workers from the state's dying industries to work in emerging businesses. "Mark Warner always said you can't compete for the low wage jobs, because they will go to the lowest bidder, but compete for the smart jobs," says Creigh, who also said he'd like to build an energy-based research center, have a transportation system that is a model for the rest of the country, and create a tax code that is as business friendly as possible. Sounds good, but what about his second day?
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Bob calls card check, which would let employees unionize without going to a secret ballot, the "most anti-free enterprise job killing bill in a long time." As attorney general, Bob says he fought federal government intrusion on business and filed suit when the feds tried to tell the state how to run its power grid. "We need a great rebirth of federalism because government has overstepped its bounds." Proof Bob is prepared for crisis: Two of his sons just got driver's licenses.
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Brian says he'd like to build an incubator, similar to CIT, for green technology, which could create "tens of thousands of jobs." He says Virginia is losing highly skilled employees who are either returning home for better jobs or not able to get H-1B visas to stay: "That has to change. The taxpayers are supporting these state universities that are training workers only to see them leave."
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T-Mac says he wants state universities to commercialize patents to bring in additional money. "Let's bring in the investment dollars to create smaller class sizes K through 12," says Terry, adding it's wrong to raise taxes in a down economy: "We need to find ways, outside of taxes, to create revenue and not put the burden on our residents who are struggling. That's not how to do business."
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| Adobe Goes Federal |
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If you've ever opened a PDF or altered a vacation photo to delete a few pounds, you know Adobe; but, you may not know about the company's 55-person burgeoning federal practice. We met public sector head Barry Leffew, who says the company (known for Adobe Acrobat, Photoshop and Dreamweaver) is tailoring well-known products for the federal government: "Our goal is to be a top five software provider to the federal government within a few years."
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We met Barry in his Tysons office where he tells us the company works with DISA to help deployed troops, support personnel, and military leaders collaborate worldwide using Acrobat Connect Collaboration. It's also looking to help the Obama administration deliver rich media as part of the President's transparency push. Barry grew up in Pottsville, PA, (home of Yuengling beer) and stays busy coaching and cheering for his three kids' teams.
Send story ideas to David@Bisnow.com
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