Jim Cashman, left, chief executive officer of Ansys Inc., speaks to an attendee following his remarks at Wednesday’s “Corridors of Opportunities” event at the Hilton Garden Inn, Southpointe. Order a Print
The head of Washington County’s most visible high-tech company, another representing one of its oldest business operations and its top politician agreed Wednesday that the county is blessed with a number of attributes that helped it to grow.
But all three men stressed they need to continue to move ahead in the areas of education and infrastructure development to maintain its economic progress.
The panel was composed of Ansys Inc. Chief Executive Officer Jim Cashman; Charlie McIlvaine, chairman of Coen Oil Co.; and Larry Maggi, chairman of the Washington County commissioners.
The trio was part of an hour-long panel discussion at Hilton Garden Inn, Southpointe, moderated by Pittsburgh Business Times Publisher Alan Robertson. The program was part of PBT’s “Corridors of Opportunity: Washington County,” an ongoing series that looks at economic development in various areas around the region.
Speaking before a lunchtime audience of more than 300 business and public officials, the panelists acknowledged the county is doing well economically for a variety of well-known reasons, ranging from the placement of the intersection of Interstate 70 and I-79 at Washington’s doorstep; the meteoric rise of the natural gas industry following the successful extraction efforts in the Marcellus Shale; and the county’s willingness a quarter-century ago to diversify its economy following the demise of the steel and glass industries in the 1980s.
“God’s blessed us with a lot of great resources and great infrastructure,” Maggi said.
For McIlvaine, who heads 90-year old Coen Oil, which has two business units – energy distribution and a growing chain of convenience stores – the converging interstates offer a perfect reason for the company to remain here to continue pursuing what has been a growth trajectory over the past several years.
“For us, there is nothing better than to have (Interstates) 70 and 79 right in our backyard,” he said, noting Coen’s service area stretches east to Willaimsport, west to Canton, Ohio and south into West Virginia. “For us, infrastructure is critical.”
He noted Coen now employs 450 people and is a $300 million company, building out its newly branded “Ruff Creek Markets” convenience store chain, while seeing a doubling of sales in its fuel distribution business over the past five years.
Cashman, who came to Washington County 20 years ago to take the reins of homegrown engineering simulation software company Ansys, has helped to grow the publicly held company into a $1 billion international supplier of systems that help engineers and designers around the world create everything from cars to smartphones and the SpaceX rocket.
The company, headquartered in Southpointe II, now employs 2,800 globally, including between 500 and 600 in Cecil Township.
Despite their disparate businesses – high-tech and retail – both Cashman and McIlvaine acknowledged the challenges of finding qualified employees.
“There are a lot of really great people graduating (from area colleges) and a lot who feel like they have to leave the area” to pursue a career elsewhere, said Cashman, who added that the company has been hiring younger computer science and engineering grads to augment its more experienced staff.
McIlvaine said Coen Oil’s hiring effort “is a victim of the area’s success” as it tries to fill positions for truck drivers and people to work in its retail operations. He said the company recently had difficulty hiring someone for a senior food service position.
While Coen attends area job fairs and uses online resources to attract potential employees and recently bolstered its human resources area, he noted that the region’s unemployment has been below that of the state and nation for some time, with Washington and Greene County’s often two points below that of the region’s.
For Cashman, the goal of Ansys is to continue to foster the long-term development of science, technology, engineering and math skills at all levels of the area’s educational system to create a pipeline of future engineers and computer scientists.
But as the county continues to be a center for the shale gas revolution, Maggi said, commissioners recognize the demands for workers will be from all areas of the workforce spectrum.
“It’s not only colleges graduates,” he said. “We need truck drivers and welders, too.”
He said the county has directed portions of its annual Local Share Account distributions from The Meadows Casino to workforce development initiatives.
When Robertson asked where the panelists see the county’s economy five years from now, their response was unanimous.
“The Marcellus Shale is going to be here,” said Maggi, with McIlvaine adding that the drilling is expected to continue for decades.
Cashman said that while Ansys derives about one-third of its revenue from the U.S., with the other two-thirds spread equally from Europe and Asia, Ansys’s intention of staying here for the long run is evident in several ways.
“Most of our product and all of the technology is right here,” he said. “When we built the new headquarters, we sort of signaled” that the company would be here in the future, he said.
Maggi said that it will be up to political and business leaders to steer the course to continued growth. He said the county is looking at several areas to develop future business parks, including the proposed Cool Valley development, a 900-acre plot adjacent to Southpointe.
But he said the future will be determined by two main factors.
“Where it goes is centered around education and infrastructure,” he said.
“We’re kind of bullish on it, but we have to keep our eye on it,” McIlvaine said.
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