Meeting People Where They Are, All Over Arkansas

Matt McGowan: Welcome to Short Talks from the Hill, a podcast of the University of Arkansas. I’m Matt McGowan, a research and economic development writer here at the university. Today I’d like to welcome Mike Malone, Vice Chancellor for Economic Development. Since starting his role at the university on April 18th, 2022, Malone has led the university’s efforts to expand economic opportunity and improved quality of life across Arkansas. He has nearly three decades of experience building coalitions and partnerships to advance community and economic development opportunities. From 2016 until his appointment at the U of A, Malone served as vice president for corporate and community affairs for Runway Group and direct investments in Northwest Arkansas, including workforce development, talent attraction and business recruitment, outdoor recreation and philanthropy. From 2006 to 2016, Malone served as president and CEO of the Northwest Arkansas Council, leading the creation and implementation of regional growth and development strategies that resulted in significant employment gains, economic growth and improved quality of life in Northwest Arkansas. Prior to his work in Arkansas, Malone held senior staff leadership positions in the White House, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives.

So, wow, Mike, how did all that happen? Tell me about your background.

Mike Malone: When I hear that, it reminds me I’m either old or can’t hold down a job. That’s kind of one of the two or maybe.

Matt McGowan: About too many agencies there, right?

Mike Malone: Yeah. Yeah, that’s right. I’ve had this series of great opportunities that have come along at really great times. The work in D.C., it was a real fortunate period to be from Arkansas when there happened to be an Arkansan as serving as president and Arkansans and senior leadership roles throughout government and the legislative branch as well. So there’s, you know, kind of… my first career example of just having good timing, I think as much as anything. But it was a great learning experience to be in DC. It is in many cases a young people’s town, where young folks are driven and energetic, and some are smart or they’re, you know, working on policy and matters of great importance to this country. It also took a lot of energy, and you know, around the clock kind of rolls and the work was around the clock. So I’m glad I did it. I’m glad I’m not doing it now.

Matt McGowan: Did it then when you were young.

Mike Malone: But yeah, yeah, it was really… It was great. And in fact, it was for my wife and I, it was really a family decision to, for me, move back to Arkansas. I grew up here and got to work on some amazing things in Washington, D.C., but we missed the personal connections, the friendliness. It’s not the friendliest town there in Washington, D.C., so it did… This just was a perfect place for us to raise our two daughters, and so we made a family decision. We moved back in ‘06 and haven’t looked back. It’s been great. Again, just fortunate timing as these opportunities have come along, including the opportunity to be here at the University of Arkansas. I just, I feel as lucky as can be and thrilled.

Matt McGowan: You’ve been on the job here for a little bit more than a year, so I’m assuming that your chair is warm, although you’re probably not doing very much sitting in it. So, having been here this long now a little over a year, I assume you’ve gotten a sense of this. What differentiates university-led economic development from traditional economic development?

Mike Malone: So, economic development is a really broad and all-encompassing term. It can mean a lot of things and it can play out in a lot of different actions and techniques and practices. And so economic development from a state perspective could be offering incentives to companies or marketing to companies, try to get them locate in Arkansas. Economic development from a regional perspective, which I did for a while, could be about building infrastructure to make sure that you’ve got what talented workers are looking for, what companies are. And those are all important components of economic development, but those aren’t the things that a university does well. The university is not going to offer incentives for relocating companies orput in stop lights for manufacturers that need physical infrastructure. The elements of economic development that universities do really well and are the most uniquely positioned to offer are training the workforce that meets the needs of the jobs of the state and jobs of the future, taking research and innovations and creating companies or getting that research deployed out for impact in the community and really in the world, but solving serious challenges and problems. Creating a place where people gather and mix and ideas spark out is it really unique role that universities can play? We can mix people together in interesting settings around, you know, some of the greatest challenges of our times. And so it’s just the power to convene and placemake and have events and sites where people want to gather and mix and different… that’s a really unique role that universities play. And then the fourth example is really through just technical assistance, training, consulting expertise. We have more knowledge and talent and expertise here on campus than anywhere else I can think of, and most everyone that I’ve met with wants to use their knowledge, talent and expertise for solving problems and making things better for Arkansas and beyond, so it’s really how do we take that knowledge, talent and expertise and extend it out and train the workforce and create a place and events where people can gather and sort with big ideas that spark out.

Matt McGowan: Have you found it to be a challenge doing university-led economic development, compared to the work before? Or was it of the kind of seamless transition for you?

Mike Malone: Learning curve is very, very steep. I certainly worked with the university, but this is my first time working at a higher ed institution. And so things are different. There’s different rhythm, schedules, definitely a culture within higher ed. And then at this institution as well. So I’ve spent a lot of my first year really in learning mode and trying to make sure that I understand the institution and all we have to offer. And so that’s been great, but it, you know, I just knew I had a lot to learn. And so that has also taken me some time, but there’s not been problems. I think that’s how you started the question. And in fact, everybody to a person that I’ve met with is really excited about sharing what they do and how it can have an impact and really anxious for any support that I or our team could provide to help them extend what they do for the good of our state and beyond. So, it’s really fun. It’s inspiring to get to meet so many brilliant people that want to have their inventions or their creations or their knowledge put to work for good. That’s a dream job, really.

Matt McGowan: It’s really nice to have a a sense. Of meaning and purpose to work for sure. So can you give an example of how your team is connected industry to campus so far?

Mike Malone: Sure, it happens on an almost daily basis, and it’s our team, and it’s others across campus. But one recent example that’s very top of mind is with Dillard’s, a great Arkansas company, a Fortune 500 company headquartered in Little Rock, does a lot of recruiting. And has been the Dillard’s corporation and the Dillard’s family have been supporters of the university. Through some meetings where we’ve taken students to visit Dillard’s facilities, both engineering students and apparel management students have been to visit Dillard’s in Little Rock. There’s been some great exposure for our students about career opportunities in the state. Some of the Dillard senior leadership team was up here just a couple of weeks ago during fashion week and judged the fashion show, spoke to students, participated in a career fair that was put on. I understand they’ve hired some of their students already, and Dillard’s has donated dozens of suits, men’s suits and I think some women’s apparel as well, in the career closet to allow students to be able to come select something to wear for job interviews. Or if they’re going out to meet with companies, and so we already had a good relationship with Dillard’s, but I think this active effort to take students to their facilities and also to have them on campus is just… It’s helping us broaden and even out their relationship across campus, which is really our goal with all companies and nonprofits and communities. We want to be viewed by them as a full service solution provider. Again, we’ve got so much knowledge, talent and expertise to offer. So we want them to have visibility and what that is, and if they see something and they want to access those services or support or engage with us, we’ve got to make it easy for them to do so and be top of mind.

Matt McGowan: What do you feel will most substantially increase the university’s economic impact to the state?

Mike Malone: So the impact right now is huge and the last time we did a study to quantify the university’s economic impact, it was pegged at $2.2 billion annually. So what happens here, the graduates that go on to work in Arkansas, and the taxes that are paid, and the spending of students when they’re here on campus, all of that, if you aggregate it… The last time we calculated it was $2.2 billion. That study was done in 2018. Our enrollment was a lot smaller. So we are in the process of updating those figures, and I feel confident that the number is going to be a lot bigger. We just got more students here and more faculty and staff, and so that alone will drive it up. But there’s a lot more activity, new businesses being created, research being commercialized, startups that have scaled and and really done well. So when we quantify all that, the impact, as it’s going to be reported, is going to be even bigger than $2.2 billion. I think until we can proactively engage with communities and with industry partners around the state so that they can fully access all that we have to offer, we’re just scratching the surface. And proactive industry and community engagement has really been my mantra the last several months… I’ve been in here a year, but I had to get my feet under me. You know, we need to meet people where they are all over the state of Arkansas and make sure they understand the different ways we might be able to help them solve their problems or take their business or their nonprofit or their community to an even higher level. And again the excitement and the willingness is here. We’ve got the talent. We’ve got students that want to engage and serve, and faculty members as well, so that when we really have proactive engagement with industry and communities on a regular basis, I think that’s when we’ll really achieve our fullest mission and serve the state as best we can.

Matt McGowan: So what has been your sense of the response here on campus to this emphasis? On economic development, since you’ve been here?

Mike Malone: Really positive. People absolutely believe in the land-grant mission, service to the state and economic impact. And then I already mentioned how excited people are about sharing what their knowledge is or what their invention is and how it can be put to use. And so it’s just been overwhelmingly enthusiastic. I was hoping that that’d be the case. I didn’t know that for sure. But it’s a lot of positivity because I think people share this feeling that I do that there’s so much more that we can offer, so many more ways that we can have an impact, that they want to contribute to that and be a part of that. It’s a real service mentality here, community-minded mentality. It’s that that makes it a joy to come to work here.

Matt McGowan: I’ve noticed since you’ve been on the job that you’ve taken a special interest in students. We have a lot of employment fairs on campus, and I know that you keep an eye on that, especially as they’re getting older and getting closer to graduation. Can you talk about the impact of students and graduates on the state of Arkansas?

Mike Malone: Absolutely. I actually think the preparing of our future workforce is probably the greatest way we can impact the economy and set this state up – and other states too, but I’m Arkansas first – but set it up well for the future. You know, I think between last week’s graduation and the December graduation we approached 6,000 graduates this year. Not all of them will go immediately into the workforce. Some will go into higher ed. We have graduates go to serve in the military and in different ways, but the vast majority of our graduates will go into workforce. More and more are staying in Arkansas, going to workforce and the career preparation that goes on, that’s infused in the classrooms, and also the things that are offered outside the classroom, make most of them work-ready and highly desired by employers. And so this is a different department. It’s not within economic development, but I want to help in any way I can and certainly advocate for the great work that the Office of Career Connections – they just changed their name – but the Office of Career Connections, because they help with resume writing, interview assistance for students, helping faculty members that want to create career competencies or career related aspects within their curriculum or within their courses. They put on the career fairs and partnerships with the various colleges. And you know, in my mind, when you’ve got several 100 employers coming on campus because they want our students, and they show up for multiple iterations of the job fair each semester, sure, that that is exactly what we want from an economic impact perspective. It means we’re hitting the mark some of these career fairs. This year sold out. We had a waiting list of employers that wanted to come but couldn’t get in, and that’s even a couple of the career fairs that are set up in Bud Walton, which is pretty good-sized space. It comes back to one of the most important roles for university economic development, is preparing the workforce and making sure that industry can connect with or hire as interns or hire our students, is one of the most important, maybe the most important thing we can be doing from an economic development perspective.

Matt McGowan: Thank you. I am curious a little bit. You talked about this, one of the things that I’ve thought about here is research and economic development, this has been my kind of myopic view, I guess, but research and economic development as being kind of separate silos, but really they’re not. And I’ve learned that really from you, via Laura, maybe, I guess is the best way of saying it. But really I think the attitude is research is economic development. Could you address that a little bit more?

Mike Malone: Yes, absolutely. The research that happens on this campus is phenomenal. And it can impact the world. It’s on us to make sure that we’ve got the right infrastructure to help researchers that invent something and need to protect that intellectual property. The folks that want to start companies around their inventions or their research. Or to license that technology out and, that is, solve problems around the world and create economic opportunities. And so absolutely the research that happens and the deployment of that research or the translation of that research into businesses or licensed intellectual property is economic development. And our team – there is a Division of Research and Innovation – I get to work in the Division of Economic Development. We work really closely together because the research grants and the volume of research that happens definitely impacts the amount of commercialization. And then within the Economic Development division, the Office of Technology Ventures helps with licensing of IP disclosure of IP protection. Then we’ve got units that can work with inventors and helping them form companies and launch enterprises related to their research. And so yes, it is inextricably linked, and so goes one, so goes the other. The Institute for Integrative and Innovative Research is going to be within one institute a great example of that research to deployment of the research. And so we’re really excited about that. The physical facility is taking shape on Dickson Street. We’ve got a great leader and doctor, Ranu Jung, and she’s building out the team of faculty and staff. And they’ll work with colleges across the campus and units across the campus as well, because it it’s truly it’s right there in the name. This is going to be integrative research. And so it we can’t do it in silos. We’ve got to do it in partnerships with one another and they want to solve really… to hear the director say that, she wants to solve or take on wicked challenges. And so we, we’ve got to do that in an integrative way. And so it’s exciting to see that take shape. It’s still early days, but they’ve already got some research grants that they’ve won, some conversations with industry partners that I feel certain will want to sponsor research when the lab and research facilities are up and operational. And then again the facilities right on target coming out of the ground. They’re on Dickson Street across from Bell Engineering. It’s really great. And then the second thing I want to mention is the great amount of start up and small business support that we offer. These are a lot of times external facing services that these units provide. The Small Business Development Center, the Arkansas World Trade Center, companies that lease space from us at the UA Tech Park, inventors, entrepreneurs that are hanging out at the collaborative in Bentonville. These are all ways that we help grow the economy and grow innovation in our communities. And it’s really important part of the work that we do because it’s external facing or happens at sites off campus and on I wanted to make sure to mention it because this is really important work.

Matt McGowan: We had Mary Beth Brooks on here a couple months ago and it was kind of astonishing to me the services that the Arkansas Small Business and Technology Development Center offer. It was really wonderful to hear that.

Mike Malone: At no cost. That’s what’s amazing to me is it’s a free resource. It’s taxpayer supported through federal grants and also some state support. And they they serve over 1,000 small businesses a year. It just blows my mind. It’s a small team in a very small physical space, but they find ways to connect, and they’ve been so successful that referrals are probably their best source of new clients.

Matt McGowan: You don’t need to advertise, right?

Mike Malone: Right.

Matt McGowan: Anything else you want to talk about?

Mike Malone: No. Thank you, though, for the opportunity. It was a pleasure to be here, and I’ll talk about this anytime.

Matt McGowan: We’ll have you back again. Anytime you want to come back.

Mike Malone: Thank you so much.

Matt McGowan: Appreciate your time.

Mike Malone: I appreciate it.

Matt McGowan: Short Talks from the Hill is now available wherever you get your podcasts. For more information and additional podcasts, visit arkansasresearch.uark.edu, the home of research and economic development news at the University of Arkansas. Music for Short Talks from the Hill was written and performed by local musician Ben Harris.