Here’s What Local Leaders Say About the Milken Ranking
Following Milken's ranking of Raleigh, North Carolina, as the number one “Best Performing Large City,” local leaders share insight into why Raleigh is truly a high-performance city. Below are several key highlights from Raleigh Mayor Janet Cowell and Greater Raleigh Chamber CEO Adrienne Cole.
Growth Strategy: “We’re always trying to up the game in terms of all those things that attract people to come and then stay in a community,” Raleigh Mayor Janet Cowell says.
Higher Education: Cowell, a former member of the Raleigh City Council who was elected mayor last year, says the area as a whole has benefited from proximity to three major academic research institutions in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina State University and Duke University, among other schools that have helped produce a large pool of high-skilled workers.
Talent: “We are very fortunate to have a vibrant academic sector,” Cowell says. “We have a lot of high-energy and diverse people living here.”
Legacy of Success: Adrienne Cole, president and CEO of the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce, says the area’s journey toward becoming a high-tech hub began around the 1960s when IBM announced plans to move to North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park – today a 7,000-acre space in the Raleigh-Durham region that’s home to close to 400 companies and is the largest park of its kind in the U.S.
Migration: In recent years, Cole says acceleration in the area’s economic growth has been led by the development of its labor force, with a greater focus on retaining students from nearby academic institutions who in the past may have moved elsewhere after graduating. At the same time, area companies have attracted workers from other states, fueling domestic migration.
Growth: “We’re seeing about 40,000 graduates a year in the region and a large portion are staying in the region,” Cole says. “We’re growing to about 51 people per day, with 17 being born here and 34 moving here.”
Housing: “You use every tool in the toolkit when you have the level of growth that we’re experiencing here,” Cowell says.
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