LANSING – Former Michigan International Speedway CEO Roger Curtis, appointed to director of the Department of Talent and Economic Development in December, is still developing goals for the department, but hopes to blend a lot of focus on the educational system, he told Gongwer News Service in a recent interview.
Born in Indiana and spending roughly 25 years in motorsports ranging from work on racing teams to securing sponsorships, procurement and doing public relations work in North Carolina, he said he ultimately wanted to end up in Michigan.
“I really do love this state,” Curtis said in an interview with Gongwer News Service. “This was an opportunity to do something meaningful for people all across the state.”
Curtis’s work at MIS was well-received, and he said he was thankful to Governor Rick Snyder that “they didn’t pigeon-hole me as a sports person,” he said, adding that he believes the skills and acumen developed at MIS are transferrable across different businesses.
“What we did at MIS was innovate … and I know the governor and his staff were very keen on some of the things we did down there. The other thing was customer service,” he said, noting that he and his staff made MIS “more like Disney than a race track.”
“If you strip away the policies and the procedures and nuances of gov’t versus private-public, what you’re trying to do is still the same thing,” Mr. Curtis said of setting goals, strategic planning and execution of those plans. “I have a huge learning curve on the specifics of departments and programs, but I’m surrounded by great people.”
A brief advice and consent hearing was held for Curtis by the Senate Economic Development and International Investment Committee in December as well, where Mr. Curtis placed a heavy emphasis on the role of the state’s educational system and how his new department needed to be more involved there to ensure the state is filling the gaps job providers are raising.
Curtis also serves on the governor’s 21st Century Education Commission and sits on a school board on Onsted. He has three kids in public schools in two different districts, he noted.
“There are some major fundamental things the commission is going to recommend (on education),” he said. “I’ll be working closely once the recommendations are made with the Department of Education, continue to work with the governor’s office and legislators, to say ‘Hey, there are some great examples right in my backyard … but we need this statewide.'”
It was not immediately clear when the Education Commission’s report would come out, but the last meeting is Wednesday, January 11, he noted.
“One of the things I have found as a state, we are really going to have to figure out how to go down the middle. We know there’s a huge gap in skilled trades. That’s clear. What we’re starting to see though is just as big of a gap, or that has a potential to become as big as, on the four-year and six-year college degree in engineering and technology,” Mr. Curtis said. “We have to figure out a way to be all things to all people.”
And he said TED can have a role in that because of many of the programs the state offers – some that are well-known that need more structural work or others with the structure in place but are less-known.
“We’re sorting through those now. There’s a broad, long-term thought process we’ll need to have of how to turn the connotation around on professional skilled trades,” he said. “There’s a huge, massive need for that, (of) how to talk with students, teachers and parents to get to know that.
“If we can convince them of that, and we will, we need the system set up to be able to train them. There are some amazing examples throughout Michigan of community colleges, high schools, intermediate school districts that are fully integrated, there’s a few not integrated at all and many in between,” he said. “We can go out and we can be amazing marketers … but I don’t want to have a broken brand promise where (students) go to their high school, community college, the intermediate school district, and they don’t have a program in place.”
He said he expects one of his biggest challenges will be learning all of the programs, but he credits “an amazing team” that’s helping him get there. Another challenge, he pointed out, is that the unemployment could be taken down to zero but there would still be a short-term gap of workers that needs to be filled, he said.
“What is our version of Pure Michigan? How are we going to get skilled laborers not just to come to Michigan but to live and stay, to show people that Michigan is a great state, but also to live and raise a family?” Mr. Curtis said. “I’m very confident we will get there. I’m really excited about this opportunity.”
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