Outlook 2021: New Center for Economic Growth exec. Newcombe found niche in regional rather than local development

Printed Feb. 25, 2021 in Outlook

ALBANY — Katie Newcombe has discovered her area of interest within the financial improvement world: working to profit a whole area moderately than a single city, metropolis or county.

In October, she was named chief financial improvement officer on the Middle for Financial Development, the No. 2 place at CEG, which serves the eight-county Capital Area.

Beforehand, she was Nationwide Grid’s senior financial developer for the Albany area and earlier than that, director of state financial improvement efforts in northwest Pennsylvania, the place she grew up.

A brief stint at Capitalize Albany gave her a larger appreciation for what goes into revitalizing a downtown, however she likes taking the broader view.

“Most of my financial improvement expertise has been on the regional degree,” Newcombe stated.

One other frequent issue amongst her jobs: She normally doesn’t get to face on the microphone and make the large announcement. However she’s a part of the crew that made it occur, and that’s simply fantastic together with her.

Outlook 2021 Index: The Gazette’s annual guide to business in our region

“I don’t assume it’s a matter of not getting credit score, it’s lots of people collaborating,” Newcombe stated. “If everyone can play their specific function, that challenge occurs.”

She added: “CEG has a singular place as a result of we are able to take that macro, eight-county view. At its most simple degree, CEG’s function is to assist drive development within the Capital Area.”

Winding highway

Newcombe grew up in Bradford, Pennsylvania, and studied economics, finance and enterprise on the state college in Erie.

A university internship at a monetary companies agency led to a full-time job as a monetary adviser after commencement, “however I knew that wasn’t what I needed to do,” Newcombe stated.

Financial improvement is what piqued her curiosity, however it wasn’t a straightforward subject to simply transfer into.

Her shot got here when there was a gap on the Governors’ Motion Crew, Pennsylvania’s equal of the state-run Empire State Growth company in New York.

“I had actually needed that job,” Newcombe recalled. However she didn’t get it.

She did get a a job supply from the Division of Commerce in North Carolina, the place she had kin, so she moved south in 2007, meaning to not return.

Solely a 12 months later, she was pitching her new house state at a California biotechnology convention and bumped into somebody from her previous house state doing the identical factor.

The one who’d gotten the job she needed on the Governor’s Motion Crew didn’t work out, and the crew needed to speak to Newcombe once more.

“The transfer to North Carolina and the following transfer again to Pennsylvania was actually the beginning of my profession,” she stated.

Newcombe turned a regional consultant in September 2008, then director of the northwest area of Pennsylvania in July 2009, a interval generally often called the Nice Recession.

“We pushed by means of on the state degree, however the northwest area of Pennsylvania had a big manufacturing base and so [it] very a lot felt the recession,” she stated. “Legacy cities really feel the recessions more durable and have a tendency to not come again as quick.”

Working in her house state within the area the place she grew up had its points of interest, however so did a man she’d met who was residing in Albany on the time. They started a long-distance relationship, which was nice — apart from the lengthy distance.

“I visited a number of occasions and actually favored town and the area,” Newcombe stated.

She relocated to town and married the man, Leland Belmont. They nonetheless reside there now, together with his son and a cat named Jack who joined their household through the COVID quarantine.

Newcombe modified focus from regional to native for her first job in her new hometown, turning into senior financial developer for Capitalize Albany in February 2013.

“I actually favored the Capitalize Albany work as a result of it let me be a part of that downtown revitalization effort,” she stated. It was a precious expertise, she added, as she’d by no means focused on a single downtown earlier than.

However she stayed with it solely till late 2014.

Outlook 2021 Index: The Gazette’s annual guide to business in our region

“You discover a job whenever you’re not trying generally,” Newcombe stated of her transfer to Nationwide Grid.

The regional financial improvement director retired and Newcombe was chosen to take her place.

The ability and gasoline utility maintains an array of financial packages, starting from vitality effectivity and infrastructure improvement to web site and group improvement to regional advertising and marketing.

It was there that Newcombe hit her stride — serving to convey new corporations to the area and dealing to maintain present Capital Area corporations right here and rising.

“I bought concerned in a little bit little bit of the whole lot,” she stated. “It’s about breaking down boundaries and shifting initiatives ahead. There’s numerous methods to try this.”

In some methods, it was the perfect preparation for her present publish — taking the broad-view strategy to financial improvement and making it work.

“I’m fascinated by, ‘Why does one area develop and one other doesn’t?’ What I do I do as a result of I completely find it irresistible.

“Once I was at Nationwide Grid I actually led these efforts within the Capital Area.”

Settling in

Newcombe’s work occupies a lot of her life, however the household makes time for recreation as effectively, significantly the outside selection — canoeing, climbing, tenting.

The 12 months 2020 concerned numerous time nearer to house.

“We purchased a home this previous 12 months,” she stated. “That is our first home, so numerous it has been doing stuff round the home. This summer time we had an enormous backyard.”

COVID has affected her new employer as a lot as any comparable group, altering the best way it really works however not the work it does.

“Our mission and our work stay the identical,” Newcombe stated. “We’re nonetheless performing our core operate. Like all nonprofit, we’re ensuring that we’re being conservative, however we’re enterprise as ordinary.”

And people who CEG serves?

“We’re seeing a few of our key business clusters, those CEG actually focuses on, performing effectively through the pandemic. We’re seeing constructive indicators within the area as we transfer into 2021.”

As with the transfer to Nationwide Grid in late 2014, the transfer to CEG in late 2020 wasn’t one thing she’d been planning. However the alternative arose and she or he took a shot.

CEO Andrew Kennedy left CEG in mid-2020 to maneuver into lobbying. Across the similar time, CEG affiliated with the Capital Area Chamber.

Chamber President and CEO Mark Eagan is now CEO and president of CEG.

“Mark handles enterprise operations, governance, high-level technique,” Newcombe stated. “My function is to supervise the employees and actually construct that technique and execute on it.”

Outlook 2021 Index: The Gazette’s annual guide to business in our region

Because the proposed affiliation was being examined by either side, Eagan stated the Chamber’s function has been evolving to focus as a lot on the area as on particular person members. The CEG originated as a chamber of commerce offshoot, and the Capital Area Chamber didn’t try and duplicate its work. They’re technically nonetheless separate entities, however work extra intently now.

Transferring to CEG, with its renewed deal with regional improvement, was a straightforward resolution for Newcombe.

“Lots of the similar folks I labored with at Nationwide Grid I work with at CEG — Nationwide Grid had grants that CEG took benefit of, or corporations that labored with CEG took benefit of.”

Intensify the constructive

A brief abstract of CEG’s function is advertising and marketing the area to enterprise and growing the expertise to fill the brand new jobs it seeks to draw.

A typical day might entail working instantly with a enterprise contemplating relocating or increasing, or working with any of the assorted improvement businesses throughout the eight-county Capital Area.

CEG is at its Most worthy when working with an organization that wishes to return to the area however can’t discover a place to find, Newcombe stated.

CEG additionally runs a producing apprenticeship program and is the area’s manufacturing extension partnership, an entity that exists particularly to help producers.

There are obstacles to beat, comparable to New York’s fame as an costly state to do enterprise in.

CEG counters that by specializing in the area’s strengths: It’s not susceptible to environmental disasters, and it has a presence within the analysis and improvement, academia, superior manufacturing, semiconductor, gaming and life sciences sectors.

“You may get out in entrance with the narrative and speak in regards to the property which might be right here … you simply need to work a little bit more durable to inform your story,” Newcombe stated.

In the meantime, native notion issues as a lot as outsiders’ notion.

Outlook 2021 Index: The Gazette’s annual guide to business in our region

“I do assume that the area has struggled with its personal self-confidence,” Newcombe stated. Lifelong residents supply totally different assessments than newcomers comparable to her, she finds.

“Typically we don’t understand how far we’ve come. I feel all of us want the tempo of change was quicker, [but] even the smallest success may be transformational.”

Newcombe likes being a part of the transformation.

“Typically it’s arduous to measure all that we’re doing to advance and promote the area for funding,” she stated.

“Once we speak about prospects, as an example, we’re selling the area, doing enterprise improvement, creating relationships the place we are able to convey somebody into the area. Then the county and state seals the deal.

“After which it’s additionally how we assist that challenge — perhaps serving to with provide chain or workforce improvement.”

The latest announcement by the state {that a} manufacturing unit can be created on the Port of Albany to construct towers for marine wind generators makes excellent sense: A big swath of actual property is accessible, supplies may be introduced in by rail and the completed product — far too huge and heavy for land or air transport — may be floated down the Hudson River to the long run wind farms off the coast of Lengthy Island.

However the port wasn’t chosen strictly due to its location, Newcombe stated: There’s a collective talent set and experience that made it occur.

“There have been lots of people that introduced that deal to the port,” she stated, and the chance exists now to construct off the deal.

“This area has property that place it effectively.”