“I don’t think America is on track right now to achieve a diverse, and inclusive, and equitable recovery mostly because we weren’t ready going in,” says the Virginia Economic Development Partnership’s president and CEO Stephen Moret.
WorkingNation interviewed Moret for our #WorkingNationOverheard series in partnership with the ASU+GSV Virtual Summit 2020, held from September 29 through October 1+October 8.
The struggle is in part due to the fact that state and local organizations were already strapped with existing commitments to education and workforce development going into the pandemic, according to Moret.
In addition to the need for federal help and transparency, Virginia was already working to boost its state’s skillset. Now, it hopes to come out of COVID-19 stronger than when it went in.
“We have created what I think will soon be recognized as the best state custom workforce development program in America. It’s called the Virginia Talent Accelerator Program. This is a program that works with companies that are creating new, high-wage jobs in Virginia, typically competitive projects like manufacturers, corporate headquarters, research and development facilities, and so forth,” says Moret.
“We have made the largest investment in U.S. history in computer science education. So not only was Virginia the first state to require computer science as a required part of the K12 learning curriculum, but we are investing more than a billion dollars to double the number of graduates that we educate each year in computer science and closely related fields, the bachelor’s level, master’s level and also community college graduates as well.”
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Dana Beth Ardi, PhD, Executive Committee, is a thought leader and expert in the fields of executive search, talent management, organizational design, assessment, leadership and coaching. As an innovator in the human capital movement, Ardi creates enhanced value in companies by matching the most sought after talent with the best opportunities. Ardi coaches boards and investors on the art and science of building high caliber management teams. She provides them with the necessary skills to seek out and attract top-level management, to design the ideal organizational architectures and to deploy people against strategy. Ardi unearths the way a business works and the most effective way for people to work in them.
Ardi is an experienced business executive and senior consultant who leverages business organizational transformation through talent strategies. She uses her knowledge and experience to develop talent strategies to enhance revenue and profit contributions. She has a deep expertise in change management and organizational effectiveness and has designed and built high performance cultures. Ardi has significant experience in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, IPO’s and turnarounds.
Ardi is an expert on the multi-generational workforce. She understands the four intersecting generations of workers coming together in contemporary companies, each with their own mindsets, leadership and communications styles, values and motivations. Ardi is sought after to assist companies manage and thrive by bringing the generations together. Her book, Fall of the Alphas: How Beta Leaders Win Through Connection, Collaboration and Influence, will be published by St. Martin’s Press. The book reflects Ardi’s deep expertise in understanding organizations and our changing society. It focuses on building a winning culture, how companies must grow and evolve, and how talent influences and shapes communities of work. This is what she has coined “Corporate Anthropology.” It is a playbook on how modern companies must meet challenges – culturally, globally, digitally, across genders and generations.
Ardi is currently the Managing Director and Founder of Corporate Anthropology Advisors, LLC, a consulting company that provides human capital advisory and innovative solutions to companies building value through people. Corporate Anthropology works with organizations, their cultures, the way they grow and develop, and the people who are responsible for forming their communities of work.
Prior to her position at Corporate Anthropology Advisors, Ardi served as a Partner/Managing Director at the private equity firms CCMP Capital and JPMorgan Partners. She was a partner at Flatiron Partners, a venture capital firm working with early state companies where she pioneered the human capital role within an investment portfolio.
Ardi holds a BS from the State University of New York at Buffalo as well as a Masters degree and PhD from Boston College. She started her career as professor at the Graduate Center at Fordham University in New York.
