Program notes: Meeting date : May 15, 2013
Pledge: Kathy Long
Inspiration: Leslie Davis
Visiting Rotarians: none
Members with Guests:
Carolyn Wilkens-Greene, Margaret Bdzil, Dan Dishno, and Peter Halpin from De Anza College, guests of Tom Dyer and Jim Gibson
Kurt Ohlfs and Bruce LeFetra. guests of Henry Buffalow
Timor Mukminov, guest of Orrin Mahoney
Chuck Harper, guest of Jim Walker
Nancy Sanchez, SVLG, guest of Don Sun
Carl Guardino, SVLG, guest of Sandy James
Jayne Ham, guest of Eleanor Watanabe
Amy Chan with daughter-in-law Sarah Park and grandson Marcus Raymond Chan, guests of Eleanor Watanabe
Liliana Li, guest of Hsing Kung
Aidong Chen, guest of Annie Ho
President's Club
Richard Lowenthal joined in honor of his recent talk at the Vocational Club and to recognize SVLG for their help with legislation to aid electric vehicles.
New Member Induction
Eleanor Watanabe presented new member Amy Chan, Classification Municipal Government, Retired, and sponsored by Steve Ting. Among her favorite hobbies are cooking & mahjong.
Past Events
The April 27 Rebuilding Together project was recapped by
Henry Buffalow and Kurt Ohlfs, Director of PACE (Pacific Autism Center for Education).
74 volunteers participated in this project to renovate the PACE school for autistic children. The large group rebuilt front stairs, added 3 flower boxes with drip irrigation, power washed, scraped, primed and painted buildings and sheds, and power washed the playground.
Upcoming Events
- Chili Cookoff is Wed, May 29 at 4PM, promoted by Leslie Hay
- Global Globe Trotters: Sunil Nethsinghe unveiled his video trailer for the next dinner event on June 13 6:30 pm at Pizza Bocca Lupo on San Pedro St in San Jose.
- HKKOP on June 19 from 6-8pm at Picchetti promoted by Steve Ting
- Hsing Fling Farewell Potluck on Fri June 28 at 5pm - BBQ dinner with family - $10 per person donated to Pres Club
Speaker
Carl Guardino, President & CEO, Silicon Valley Leadership Group was introduced as our guest speaker by
Sandy James.
Carl quipped that he was giving the same gift to every person in the room as he had offered his wife for their recent anniversary: a copy of the 2013 Silicon Valley CEO Busines Climate Survey.
He showed a number of fascinating charts from the survey and beyond.
Among our many strengths as a region, he noted the talent we draw from all over the world: 53% of engineers in Silicon Valley were not born in the US. He used the terms Freneries and Co-opetition to denote how we often simultaneously work together on some things and compete on others, and work to maintain healthy long-term relationships with each other rather than burning bridges. He observed that we have 3 of the top 15 universities in the world (Stanford, Cal, UCSF), we attract 40% of the country's venture capital investment, and we have a beautiful region & climate which make this a great place to live.
The top 5 business challenges of our region, according to SVLG CEOs: employee housing costs, employee recruitment & retention cost, business regulations, traffic congestion, business taxes. The top single change these CEOs would like state and local government to undertake to improve the business climate for their companies is to improve K-12 public education.
Carl noted that a key legacy of the partnership forged between John Vasconcellos & David Packard 40 years ago remains a close relationship between the public sector and private sector in Silicon Valley, working together for the common good. Companies need well educated workers and good transportation & housing; government benefits from jobs; some examples:
- 1 job in semiconductor manufacturing creates 5 more jobs, yielding total wages & benefits of $476k, and state & local revenues of $71k.
- 1 job in computer manufacturing creates 8 more jobs, yielding total wages & benefits of $808k, and state & local revenues of $115k.
- 1 job in pharmaceutical prep manufacturing creates 7 more jobs, yielding total wages & benefits of $701k, and state & local revenues of $100k.
Carl closed addressing the four ways SVLG is working to push comprehensive immigration reform, its current top priority, which include working with of its 8 major companies, enlisting local plant managers in the 50 states in which its 375 member companies operate, working with 24 similar associations in innovation regions across the country, and launching a social media campaign next week called March for Innovation.