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The Mississippi moonshot

Mississippi’s economy continues to suffer as leadership remains loyal to legacy petrochemical industries, but a few innovative companies breaking ground within the state are opening the workforce’s eyes to the idea that greener gigs can offer bigger bucks.
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In terms of rankings, Mississippi is not only the poorest state in the nation but also the most heavily polluted. As home to major players in the crude oil and petrochemical industries, leadership has been reluctant to pass environmental initiatives. However, all is not lost because Mississippi’s geological and geographic assets have caught the attention of a few alternative fuel companies that could spring the state forward to become a national leader in the green economy.

To get a sense of direction, Jay first speaks with Sara DiNatale, a Mississippi Today reporter who covers business, economy, and labor within the state. Sara explains that the state’s workforce is more preoccupied with finding higher paying jobs than worrying about environmental concerns, but one industry has gained traction: wood pellet manufacturing. Jay then chats with Jonathan Green, executive director of the STEPS coalition, who opines that the environmental damage the state has incurred has rendered it a blank slate with the potential for radical redevelopment.

One company seizing opportunity in Mississippi is Enviva, a biofuel company that manufactures wood pellets to be used as a replacement for coal. Kim Lloyd, Enviva’s director of human resources, describes how Enviva is offering significantly higher wages while also reducing the company’s environmental impact through sustainable forestry. To get a better sense of how a biofuel plant may affect the local economy, Jay phones George County Community Development & Communications Director Ken Flanagan, who sheds light on how pellet manufacturing is providing a new market for the state’s long-suffering forestry and timber industries.

Looking ahead, Jay interviews Claire Behar, CCO of Hy Stor Energy, about how Mississippi’s coastline has all the right ingredients for green hydrogen to finally go from pipedream to pipeline. In fact, the company’s partners at the University of Southern Mississippi, including geophysicist Dr. Jason McKenna, are already betting on Hy Stor’s success by developing certification programs for this new energy source, which they believe has the capacity to decarbonize maritime transport.

CREDITS:

Featuring: Jay Tipton, Paula DiPerna, Sara DiNatale, Jonathan Green, Kim Lloyd, Ken Flanagan, Claire Behar, Jason McKenna
Produced by: Alicia Clark, Mike Zunic
Executive Produced by: Melissa Panzer, Joan Lynch, Art Bilger
Written by: Jay Tipton, Mike Zunic
Talent Producer: Emily Lallouz
Edited and Sound Mixed by: Lynz Floren
Assistant Editor: Mengfang Yang
Music by: Avocado Junkie
Made possible by: the Walton Family Foundation

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.