GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING MINUTES

Savannah Economic Development Authority 131 Hutchinson Island Road

Savannah, Georgia 31421

Wednesday, February 21, 2018 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm

Compiled by: Commissioner’s Office Georgia Department of Economic Development 75 Fifth Street N.W., Suite 1200 Atlanta, Georgia 30308 Phone: 404 962.4003 Fax: 404.962.4009

Georgia Department of Economic Development Board Meeting – February 21, 2018

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Pursuant to notice duly given, the Board of Directors of the Georgia Department of Economic Development met on February 21, 2018, 2:00 pm, Savannah Economic Development Authority, 131 Hutchinson Island Road, Savannah, Georgia 31421. Attending Board Members Jay Neely Monty Osteen Eric Johnson Randall Pugh Tom Griffith Bill Leahy Dennis Chastain Mike Campbell Kent Fountain Wayne Christian Attending Advisors Anne Kaiser Sean McMillan Kevin Shea Chairman Jay Neely called the GDEcD Board Meeting to order at 2:00 pm. He introduced John Moffatt, Chief Financial Officer – Georgia Department of Economic Development, to present two resolutions for the Board to approve. Chairman Neely called for a motion to approve Resolution 1- Easement. Eric Johnson motioned to approve the Resolution, Randall Pugh seconded and the Resolution was unanimously approved. Chairman Neely called for a motion to approve Resolution 2 – Conveyance of Property. Bill Leahy motioned to approve the Resolution and Tom Griffith seconded the motion. Resolution 2 was unanimously approved. Both resolutions are attached. Chairman Neely then called for a motion to approve the minutes from the October 30, 2017 minutes. Dennis Chastain motioned to approve the minutes and Tom Griffith seconded the motion. The minutes of the October 30, 2017 meeting were unanimously approved. There was not a quorum of members at the October 30 meeting so Chairman Neely called for a motion to approve the minutes from the August 16, 2017 meeting. Bill Leahy motioned to approve the minutes and Dennis Chastain seconded the motion. The minutes from the August 16, 2017 meeting were unanimously approved. Neely thanked the Savannah Economic Development Authority for hosting our meeting and called on Trip Tollison, President and CEO, to provide remarks. Trip welcomed the board and advisors to Savannah and gave a brief presentation on the World Trade Center Savannah. He recognized several guests in attendance, including: Trae – Effingham, Anna Chafin -, Joe Marinelli – Visit Savannah, Beth Nelson – Film, and Angela Hendrix – SEDA. Trip also recognized

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Kevin Jackson, Chairman of SEDA who welcomed the board and advisors and thanked them for visiting Savannah. Trip spoke to the board about the Savannah Manufacturing Center which is an independent development tract of 719 acres with individual parcels that is ready for companies and prospects to use to go vertical. It is close to the Port and Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport and has non-stop interstate access. The State of Georgia invested 1.8 billion dollars in the Center and is working on widening I-16 to 516 at the Dean Forrest Interchange. Tollison also told the members that SEDA has recently joined the International World Trade Centers Association – a global network, which has 323 members representing 88 countries. The Association provides information on real estate and facilities, trade promotion and services, as well as conferences and exhibitions. The World Trade Center Savannah provides assistance in growing jobs. One example: Savannah Bee, which has had 400+ international delegates visit, is now exporting to the UK and Europe. SEDA provides sales and marketing which assists prospects that are looking at the area to invest and provide job opportunities. Chairman Neely recognized Ken Bianco, Vice President – Commercial Operations, JCB Construction Equipment North America, to give an update. JCB, founded by Joseph Cyril Bamford in England in 1945, has called Savannah home for the past 18 years. JCB invented the back hoe loader in 1953 and the telescopic handler in 1977. JCB is the largest heavy equipment manufacturer in the world with 10,000+ employees all over the world and 300+ products. With their cutting edge innovation, they manufactured 76,000 machines in 2017. The North America market (14.1 billion) opened in Baltimore in 1971 and moved to Savannah in 1999. The reasons why JCB made the move to Savannah include: the Sunbelt, close to the Port, rail, I-95, and the airport. They also liked the diversity of the area and the warm climate Savannah offers as well as service to the foreign ports. The state demographics and labor pool was also a factor. JCB is investing again offering exports from Savannah to the world. The US Army is a defense contractor with a 62-million-dollar LCRTF contract for the HMEE for 1,600 units over the next five years which they will begin producing in the 3rd quarter of 2018. JCB is also very proud of its apprenticeship program which has had 30 students pass through so far. They work with Go Build Georgia and Savannah Tech and Southern College. Ken invited the board and advisors to attend the JCB Mud Run (June 16, 2018), which proceeds benefit early childhood development at the Lady Bamford Center in Savannah. Chairman Neely called on Steve Mauney, Director of Operations – ORAFOL America, Inc., to provide remarks. ORAFOL manufactures and produces self-adhesive vinyl film (bumper stickers, etc.), reflective film for highway signs, digital printed wraps for buses and race cars, license tags, signs, military decals, etc. Their largest competitor is 3M. Vinyl film is easier than painting, is removable, and lighter.

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In 1808 the family owned business started in Germany and moved to Berlin in 1908. ORAFOL was purchased by the current owner in 1989 and moved to Black Creek, Georgia in 2006. Black Creek was the first facility that manufactured product outside of Germany. ORAFOL continued growth during the recession and is proud to call Georgia home. Some of the reasons they moved to Georgia include: tax incentives, the Savannah Port, access to the airport, land opportunity for continued expansion, the Bryan County economic development group, local college support, the technical colleges worked with them to change their curriculum to meet their needs to provide a great workforce. Quick Start was a huge resource to them. It was their biggest incentive. They had 30 people that did not speak English receive professional training through Quick Start. Steve said, “Do not mess with Quick Start!”. He also stated that the Department of Labor was a big help with recruitment and screening. Steve said that you might have seen ORAFOL’s work during the Hilton Head golf tournament when they wrapped the lighthouse in plaid to celebrate their 50th anniversary. Neely called on Ted Dennard, Beekeeper/Owner - Savannah Bee, to speak to the group. Ted started his remarks with the statement that, “Savannah Bee is a little warehouse on an island but we have heart.” Ted grew up on St. Simons Island and always had an interest in bees. He opened Savannah Bee in 1999 and in 2002 incorporated and attended his first trade show. In 2005 he attended the Export Georgia class. Savannah Bee has 12 retail stores, thousands of wholesale customers, and a website. All of his labels and packaging have facts about bees. Honey bees are sustainable which is a win-win for all. Ted started the Bee Cause Project, which is a non-profit, in 2013. There are honey bee observation hives in 300 schools in all 50 states and 5 countries. The World Trade Center Savannah is a great resource. He has partnered with GDEcD who provides help during trade shows – lining up distributors for him to meet with. At the last trade show there were 12 distributors lined up to meet with him. He picked a consultant and partnered with the World Trade Center to get things set up. SUSTA has helped with in-store demonstrations and provides reports with opportunities to enter markets (what must be provided on labels). They are now working with Ireland and Korea and could not have gotten the opportunities without the help of SEDA and GDEcD. Ted anticipates 800,000 pounds of honey this year – 45% of which will be used for health and beauty. Chairman Neely called on Rebecca Ogden, President - Port Fresh Logistics, for an update. Port Fresh Logistics opened in April 2017 because of a problem/opportunity. Savannah exported thousands of refrigerated cartons but after the shipping containers left the port they never came back. Port Fresh Logistics opened to provide a solution to importing cold treated produce. It required a USDA policy change where they could bring in and store produce at 43 degrees (never opened) all at the Savannah Port with US customs available on the dock. They now import produce from South America with space for 500 containers. They offer repacking and custom packing as well. Services from the State of Georgia included Quick Start training and recruiting where they learned that 62% of Effingham residents travel outside the county to work. They are having very good success keeping those employees inside the county. They received a OneGeorgia Grant and are in the process of developing property on exit 48. Rebecca invited the members to stop in for a tour any time they are visiting Savannah.

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Neely called on Joe Marinelli, President – Visit Savannah and Tracy Vaughn, Director, Business Development and International Accounts – GDEcD, for an update. Travel is the 2nd largest export in the US. In 2016, there were 1,327,600 visitors pass through the state of Georgia with an average of 11 nights spent in Georgia per trip which equaled $1,879,300,000 in spending (average of $1,416 per visitor spent per trip.) The number one provider of travel to the US is Canada with the United Kingdom and Germany following. Travel from China and India is the fastest growing. Visit Savannah and GDEcD provide destination product development - understand the consumer, develop story messaging, provide travel trade training, media exposure, and co-operative marketing with tour operators. Tourism is economic development in our state. Travel fuels export growth and creates jobs. “We sell what we know.” Our mission: Strengthen and grow the state’s economy by inspiring travel to and within Georgia. International visitation, spending, and market share. Chairman Neely called on Trip Tollison to update the board on Film Savannah and the Savannah Harbor JDA. Film Savannah is a combined film office that opened in 2016. It is a certified company ran by Beth Nelson. In 2017, film was a 137+ billion-dollar impact. Savannah has been named #1 for small town movie making for two years. The local incentive pays rebates to production companies. They run on a $1.5 million dollar a year budget. Representative Ron Stephens is working on legislation for a tax incentive this legislative session. The Joint Development Authority is made up of Bryan, Bulloch, Chatham, and Effingham counties and covers I-16 and the Port. Together, the JDA has 75+ sites to show prospects. Neely called on Dawn Townsend, Division Director, International Trade – GDEcD, for an update on international trade. We have had a record breaking year in the total trade numbers for 2017 – up 6%/$37.2 billion. Trade has been involved in 28 marketing events. Our international reps will be in Georgia in March to meet with companies and attend the Global Awards event. Up next was Bert Brantley, Chief Operating Officer – GDEcD to present the Commissioner’s Report and the legislative update. Bert thanked the SEDA team and gave a brief update on GDEcD’s FDI team which has 11 international offices. We have a new director in the Germany office, Sergio Dominguez, who begins on March 1 and comes to us from South Carolina. Our international offices work with us on trade, FDI, and tourism. There are more than 3,000 foreign-owned facilities currently existing in Georgia. These companies represent more than 50 nations and employ over 150,000 workers. Locations: 86 total – 29 new locations (34%), 57 expansions Jobs Created: 6,338 total – 3,508 from new locations (55%), 2,830 from expansions Investment: $1.6 billion total - $849 million from new locations (53%), $766 million from expansions International business connections – over 3,000 internationally-owned business operations, 87 consulates, trade offices, and honorary consulates, 33 bi-national chambers of commerce, 68 countries represented. Next, Bert presented the legislative update.

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Legislative Update The Legislative Calendar is set through Day 40. Day 30 is March 5 and Day 40 is March 29. Budget The Senate passed the AFY18 budget. The House made two changes and the Senate agreed. The House held a hearing on the FY19 budget this week. No changes in Governor Deal’s recommendations except for the workforce move. Commissioner Wilson talked about the workforce move. Our two agency bills will be taken up at a different time. International Day at the Capitol is March 20 from 8:30 to 10 in the North wing. It isn’t a session day, but we expect a good legislative crowd. We are trying to link up legislators from areas with specific foreign investments in their districts with those respective reps. House and Senate both have broadband bills. Various discussions about broadband ready communities (done by DCA) and various levels of funding/participation from OneGeorgia. The Workforce move passed Senate Higher Ed Feb 15, unanimously. This just moves workforce to TCSG. The IRC update includes jet fuel exemption is in House Rules. Ron Stephens dropped a school start date bill which would move the date that school starts to the third week of August. This is a Tourism industry bill. Brantley presented the Commissioner’s Report to the Board: Commissioner’s report - February 21, 2018 First off - thank you to the Savannah Economic Development Authority for hosting us. General: We are excited to share our FY17 Year in Review with you all. We tried something a little different this year – we went with a slightly smaller size and added a journal element to the print versions. We think this innovation will encourage our stakeholders to hang onto it for a longer period of time. And of course, we included the very popular Impact Map. Divisions updates: You’ve heard about some of our international efforts today - I wanted to share some updates from our other teams. Film: The film division will host “Film Day at the Capitol” on February 27th in the North Wing at 9:00 AM. Governor Deal and Speaker Ralston will join us and give remarks. Also, UGA’s annual Chapter Lecture Series will be devoted to the film industry this year.

On February 26th at the UGA Chapel, Deputy Commissioner Lee Thomas will be part of a conversation with producers Gale Anne Hurd and Will Packer.

Tourism: The U.S. Civil Rights Trail launched on MLK Day and includes 11 sites in Georgia.

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Among the 130 sites across 14 states, Georgia’s are located in Atlanta, Albany and Midway.

On January 23, 2018, Gov. Deal was joined by leaders from Georgia’s tourism industry for the annual Tourism, Hospitality & Arts Day at the Capitol to recognize the $60.8 billion impact of tourism on Georgia’s economy.

Representatives from the tourism industry presented Deal with a check representing the $3.1 billion in state and local tax revenue generated by tourism-related expenditures.

Gov. Deal also unveiled the cover of the official 2018 state travel guide, which features Georgia-native Jason Aldean, the reigning Academy of Country Music “Entertainer of the Year” at the Big House Museum in Macon.

o You have a copy of the travel guide in front of you. International Relations: The International Relations team has been busy this last month welcoming new members of Georgia’s Consular Corps and planning travel for 2018.

A few weeks ago - traveled to Israel with a focus on cybersecurity.

We had some great meetings with cyber companies and training facilities that doing amazing things in an area that is vitally important to literally everything we do.

Global Commerce: Two weeks ago we were in Albany for the 30th annual Georgia Quail Hunt.

Great event

Georgia Allies - title sponsor

Hosted 26 site selectors On Jan. 23 - Gov. Nathan Deal along with Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms announced that Groupe PSA, a French multinational manufacturer of automobiles and motorcycles, will locate its new North American headquarters in Fulton County.

Groupe PSA is the second-largest carmaker in Europe

This announcement puts a spotlight on the value of our international missions as Governor Deal traveled to Paris ahead of the Italy mission in October to meet with PSA.

Just a FYI - we were supposed to announce this news at our last board meeting in Atlanta, but ended up having to delay the announcement to tie up some loose ends.

And, if you all are interested in joining us for our 5th annual Small Business Rock Stars Luncheon on March 19 at the Fox Theater in Atlanta - please let us know.

The keynote speaker will be MailChimp CEO Ben Chestnut.

Marketing & Communications: Our Marcomm team is busy supporting all our divisions. A few highlights include: GDECD’s newest international investment video takes a detailed look at Georgia’s Korean community and some of the key Korean companies that call our state home.

Hyundai Construction Equipment in Norcross, Kia Motors Manufacturing Georgia in West Point, and LG Hausys in Adairsville are featured alongside the annual Korean festival, the Korean Language School, and local dining and shopping.

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The video was produced in Korean with English subtitles. In February GDECD launched SiteSelector, its new digital technology platform that provides site consultants, brokers, companies and communities with site selection data, available buildings data, demographic data, and international company data specific to the state of Georgia and for the purpose of research.

The platform provides Georgia communities with the ability to update their building data through a permission-based content management system (CMS); in addition, it provides functionality for internal staff to manage, change, update add or remove data.

Arts: Guidelines for GCA’s FY19 Partner, Project and Arts Education Program Grant guidelines are now available on the grant guidelines page on the GCA website.

We encourage you to share this information with eligible applicants in your communities.

Arts Education Program Grant applications are due on March 6, 2018. Workforce: As you all may have heard in the Governor’s state of the state - effective July 2018, the Workforce Division will move out from under GDEcD and restructured under the Technical College System of Georgia.

This team will continue to oversee the federal Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act while providing employment-driven resources to employers and jobseekers throughout the state.

This move aligns our state’s workforce resources with the technical college system which allows for more opportunity and

Next week, the State Workforce Development Board will host their quarterly meeting on March 1 in Thomasville. COI: SOAR 2018 is set to take place in Macon on March 6-8:

This conference put on by the Center of Innovation for Aerospace and local partners connects automotive and aerospace companies with OEM and Tier 1 suppliers.

Planning for the Georgia Logistics Summit are underway. The annual event is set to take place April 9-12 in Atlanta.

This year, the Georgia Logistics Summit has teamed up with MODEX, one the largest material handling tradeshows in North and South America to bring together content and more than 20,000 attendees a day to Atlanta.

The COI team is also hosting Georgia Ag Resource Roadshow events in April in Tifton, Statesboro, Macon, Athens.

This workshop will provide economic developers, Chamber leadership, county and city government, and legislators a high-level overview of the resources the State of Georgia has to offer for agribusiness economic development.

Georgia Department of Economic Development Board Meeting - February 21, 2018

If you are interested in participating in any of these events - please let us know.

International Trade: You all heard from Dawn already regarding our new trade numbers.

I just wanted to share a few additional things with you.

Trade has been busy with back to back international events in 2018.

• Our ag team hosted delegations from Colombia and Canada during IPPE, the largest poultry processing show in the world.

• Trade supported more than 20 Georgia floor-covering companies at Domotex In Germany, and 6 healthcare companies exhibited with Georgia at Arab Health in Dubai.

• In March, the team will lead events in Mexico, Korea, and Singapore, so the year is off to a packed start.

Also in March, we'll welcome our international representatives back to Georgia. • We want to invite each of you to attend our Go Global reception on Tuesday, March 2oth

at the Atlanta History Center. • This is a great opportunity to see our international team in action, and to celebrate the

success of Georgia exporters throughout the past year. • Please let Dawn know if you have any questions about the event.

Chairman Neely reminded the board members that they are responsible for being the eyes and ears for the Department and should take the information that they learn in the board meetings back to their communities as well as letting the Department know what they are seeing and hearing in their communities. He asked them to set a yearly goal of speaking at one chamber or rotary meeting a year.

Chairman Neely adjourned the meeting at 4:23 pm.

Respectfully Submitted:

Monty Osteen Board Sec ary

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