Read Rob Simpson's 2026 Economic Champions Remarks

But first, there are some folks I'd like to thank.

To our Board and Executive Committee, thank you for thinking big about what this region can become. To our sponsors, thank you for investing in this work. To our staff, thank you for turning ambition into action every day. And to my family: this work has always been personal, and none of us does it alone. Thank you.

Every year at this lunch, we take a moment to count what this region has built. This year, the count is remarkable. 

You heard Steve share the numbers earlier and they deserve a second glance - 3,700 new employees. More than 1.4 million square feet of expansion. More than $1.5 billion in capital investment. We recognize 110 businesses that opened new storefronts, offices and facilities. Fifty-four organizations marking milestone anniversaries. One hundred forty-three that earned major awards. And 22 that made their workplaces and communities more inclusive.

None of that happened by accident. It happened because people in this room decided to bet on this place. So let’s offer a huge THANK YOU to all of our Economic Champions. 

I want to spend a few minutes today on the evolution of a question. This region has asked it before, more than once. My first exposure to it was in early in my career, after Carrier had closed its manufacturing here. After Magna shuttered New Venture Gear. After our downtowns were hollowed out by a wave of banking consolidations and neglect. It came from our business and civic leaders and our elected officials. 

What kind of place are we becoming? 

Consider the history. Two hundred years ago, the most important channel of commerce in America ran right through the middle of this region. Dug by hand and powered by mules, the Erie Canal moved what we invented and built here out to the rest of the country and on to the world. Before it was built, some people called it folly. Clinton's Ditch. And yet it turned a salt town on a brine aquafer into a city that mattered. 

But the world changed, as it always does. 

Commerce moved to the railroads, and for a time the trains ran right through the heart of our city. Then came the highways, and someone thought it would be a good idea to build one of those right through our downtown too. But then came the airports. Then the internet, which didn't need a crossroads at all. 

Decisions about our industries began to be made somewhere else. As plants closed, young people left. And for most of my career, this region got very good at not getting its hopes up. Scrapping. Embracing the persona of the underdog.  

And that grit served us well. Together, we stopped accepting conditions as they were and started to accept responsibility for changing them. And change did come. 

We began to rebuild our city through downtown’s resurgence. We began to work together as a region – with business, civic, academic and elected leaders from Oswego to Auburn and beyond, working together towards a common cause. And we began to dream. 

I remember vividly when Amazon announced in 2017 that it was looking for a home for its second headquarters. For those of us in the Economic Development field, that moment was excruciating. Amid a deluge of work, every leader in every city was just expected to respond no matter the obvious odds. And so, we did. 

I’ll be honest, I remember resenting that work when it began. But something happened in that process I didn't expect. For several few weeks, a small team of stakeholders gathered every day. And soon enough, we stopped listing the reasons we couldn't. We set aside the habit of treading carefully. And we asked ourselves a different question. 

What kind of place COULD we become? 

What would it take to be a place that could host something that big? What would we need to build? Who would we need to be? What value could we offer a titan of global commerce? And how might we use the market power of such an investment to reshape the way that humans experience life in Central New York? 

Of course, we lost. Amazon went elsewhere. But we didn't walk away empty-handed. We walked away having imagined it. And once you've imagined something, it's very hard to let go of it. 

Nearly five years later to the day, I found myself at a dinner in Albany with the leadership of a company whose name most of Central New York didn't know yet. The next morning, they were meeting Governor Hochul for the first time. 

Again, we were the long shot. The underdog. We talked about that openly. Everyone at that table knew it. 

But this company brought a very specific list. Land. Water. Power. Workforce. Incentives. 

And somewhere during that dinner, as we went down the list, I think it dawned on the County Executive and I that there wasn't a single thing on it that we couldn't deliver. I walked out of that restaurant believing, really believing, that we had a chance not just to land a project but to rethink our own ambition for the future. 

You know the rest. Micron chose Central New York. The largest private investment in the history of this state. Per capita, Micron's investment in Central New York is among the largest of any semiconductor project in the country. Few communities in America have ever been asked to absorb investment on this scale. We have never seen anything like it. 

Two centuries after the canal, the world continues to evolve. Some of the most valuable commerce on earth now moves through the global semiconductor supply chain. And for the first time in generations, we find ourselves – again – at a critical nexus of the global economy. 

And that question is back. Bigger this time. 

What kind of place WILL we become? 

Here's what I've come to understand. Micron gave us their list, and we delivered it. But the next list, the one that answers THAT question -- no one is going to hand us. No one else has the standing to tell us who we need or want to be in this moment. That list is ours to write. 

Last month, our Board spent a day trying to start it.  

We covered a lot of ground. 

Talent is on that list. The jobs coming here will need people ready to do them. Which means a pipeline of opportunity available for those who haven’t always had it. As Papia and Ben just discussed, employers will need to think about talent differently as competition increases. And schools and colleges will need to learn to move with industry – not exclusively, but more nimbly.   

Housing is on the list. If people can't find a place to live, sure companies will struggle to recruit the workers they need. But more importantly, what kind of society and community will we have built if we fail to afford our neighbors basic dignity and proper shelter? 

Transportation is top of mind too – completing the Community Grid. Transforming Hancock International Airport into the most important cargo and logistics hub for the semi-conductor industry East of the Mississippi River. High-speed rail. 

Our arts, our retail and restaurants, our parks, our neighborhoods, our civic life. 

Every single aspect of life in Central New York must scale simultaneously at a pace we have never experienced before. And none of it will build itself. It takes planning. Coordination. Communication. Funding. Leadership. The same things it took to land Micron. And just like Micron, every one of them is something this region can deliver. 

But not by accident. And not alone. 

Which is what brings us back to this room. 

Today we honor you as Economic Champions for what you've built inside your own walls. The jobs you created. The doors you opened. The risks you took. 

What this moment asks is that we become champions of what's outside those walls, too. 

That means recommitting ourselves to the civic conversation about what this place needs and what is right. It means advocating for it, out loud. It means embracing a shift from active participants in our regional economy to the leaders driving it.  

Two hundred years ago, the people of this state dug a ditch across it, largely by hand, while some who didn't see the vision called it folly. They weren't waiting for someone to deliver them prosperity. And they weren't thinking small. 

Our own ambitions represent the ceiling of our potential. It was true then. It is true now. 

I know what’s on my list. 

A region that matters to America's competitiveness. A thriving hub of the critical industries that create good jobs and keep this country strong and secure. A vibrant hive of global commerce and of global culture. 

A region that wins again. Consistently. In our economy, in our civic life, and inside the JMA Wireless Dome. 

A place that has chosen to invest in its arts, its food, its recreation and its places. Until people don't just come here for a job, they come for our community. 

We may remain on the smaller side of cities and regions, at least for now. But the quality of our place, the product we offer the people and businesses of the world, should be nothing short of exceptional. Any ceiling lower than that will not accommodate the people of this region who have toiled, shoulders hunched, for far too long. Who have carried the grief of loss and the weight of disappointment. And who, after a long labor, have earned the right to stand up straight with hope and pride again.  

Economics may now happen at a global scale, but people still experience that economy the way the always have. Out their front door. In their neighborhoods and their schools. In the quality of their jobs. In the compassion and dignity we cultivate in one another. 

I may have walked out of that dinner in Albany believing. But today, I hope that every one of you leaves here knowing. 

What kind of place Will we become? 

Anything we want. 

Anything we dream. 

Anything we feel compelled to work for when we get out of bed in the morning. 

Anything we will fight for at a planning board meeting on a Tuesday evening. 

Anything at all. 

And that potential is thanks to you. Our Economic Champions. For believing. For investing. For delivering us to this moment. 

Congratulations to each of you. As you grow, so does our collective voice. There has never been a moment where it is needed more. 

Thank you.