Is Billionaire Wilbur Ross the Answer to America’s Jobs Problem?

January 13, 2017

President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for Commerce Secretary, Wilbur Ross, is under a microscope as he heads to the Senate for a confirmation hearing Wednesday, and by the end of it we will hopefully have a better idea of his plans to help Mr. Trump fulfill his promise to create 25 million jobs over the next 10 years.

Trump tapped the billionaire for the position back in November because he said Ross is “a champion of American manufacturing and knows how to help companies succeed.”

Trump made saving manufacturing jobs the cornerstone of his campaign and it paid off with a massive turnout in the Rust Belt region of the country that led to his election for president.

So how can Ross help Trump save jobs?

As Commerce Secretary, Ross will be “the face of American business in the U.S. and abroad, with a special emphasis on attracting foreign investment and overseeing certain trade cases that could punish foreign rivals.” He will be tasked with leading the department in charge of creating jobs, promoting economic growth, and improving the standards of living for all Americans.

Some questions Ross may face Wednesday will be in regards to his views on regional and bilateral trade agreements, NAFTA, the TPP, and a possible U.S.-U.K. trade agreement. He may also be asked about how he plans to divest his massive portfolio and recent reports he outsourced thousands of jobs since 2004.

Ross made his billions by acquiring embattled steel and textile manufacturing companies and learning the ins and outs of U.S. trade policy to know if and when tariffs would be imposed on imported steel. In 1997, he founded WL Ross & Co., an investment firm with a portfolio of 178 companies that specializes in corporate restructuring. His knowledge of international trade policies has made him an outspoken critic on U.S. trade deals.

Back in July 2016, he co-wrote a piece for CNBC on why we need a tough negotiator like Trump to fix U.S. trade policy. He pointed out how NAFTA failed to be the net jobs creator it promised to be, how China’s entry into the World Trade Organization has led to China’s dominance in the market at the expense of American companies, and how the South Korean free trade agreement has nearly doubled our South Korean trade deficit and cost us 75,000 jobs.

Ross credited Trump as being the candidate who can negotiate or renegotiate free trade agreements that can both increase total trade and reduce our trade deficit. “When these two conditions are met,” Ross said, “real world trade will converge with textbook theory, this country will be far more prosperous, and a now shattered faith in the global trading order will be restored.”

Those who see America’s trade policy as broken and in need of repair to help save jobs and the economy, will see Ross as an ally. Those who support free trade worry Ross could spark trade wars by supporting extreme measures, like implementing tariffs, to keep imports out.

While millions of jobs—not only in manufacturing but in other blue and white collar jobs—have been lost to globalization and outsourcing, there are other factors at play as well: automation, technology, artificial intelligence, inefficient education. If Trump and Ross want to be effective, they can’t just focus on saving jobs but filling them as well. They will need to encourage job training initiatives, retool the education system to meet the demands of employers, and support community programs re-skilling the unemployed or underemployed for the changing labor force.

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Dana Beth Ardi

Executive Committee

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.