Reflecting on our past year at San Diego Regional EDC, I turn to the conversations and moments I’ve been privileged to share with many of you across the San Diego community.
Each month, on a Wednesday morning overlooking the greens at Torrey Pines (or via Zoom screen), more than 60 board members from across San Diego’s industries—life sciences to defense, breweries to sports—have created space to connect, collaborate, partner, and assess our progress toward the region’s Inclusive Growth goals: 20K post-secondary completions annually, 75K newly thriving households, and 50K new quality jobs in small businesses by 2030. We know this is a marathon, not a sprint, and we’re in it for the long haul.
Our Board represents businesses born and grown here, new market entrants, large businesses with global reach, small, family-owned firms, nonprofits, academia, and anchor institutions in between. All of us have one thing in common: a commitment to the future of San Diego.
If we have learned anything about economic development over the years, it’s that we can neither stay the status quo nor stick to our swim lanes. We must work together, in our different ways, to ensure a resilient and competitive San Diego for employers and residents alike. In 2024, here’s how you can lean into this work with us:
While every company grapples with its post-pandemic approach to employee retention and return to office, participate in EDC’s study to understand your workforce’s needs
Support talent pipeline development and host summer interns in computing, engineering, or business—paid for through grant funding and sourced from San Diego’s Verified Programs
Endorse the Inclusive Growth goals and adopt strategies to create more quality jobs, skilled talent, and thriving households in San Diego
Stay tuned for World Trade Center San Diego’s trade mission to draw regional investment and elevate San Diego’s global identity
Join 150 local companies and institutions in investing in EDC’s programs, research, and goals
The steps we take on this journey will be underpinned by EDC’s Research Bureau, market strategy, talent initiatives—and reliant on your investment—to help grow San Diego’s economy.
Every week, ‘Good News of the Week’ features a curation of positive headlines from San Diego, delivered straight to your inbox. A blend of aggregated stories from San Diego’s most trusted news sources and original EDC-created content, GNOTW provides a comprehensive recap of the region’s best stories from the past week. GNOTW is sponsored by Manpower San Diego.
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For the week of January 5, 2024, here’s what we’re reading:
Join us on February 8 as we announce the 15 San Diego companies selected to join our seventh and newest cohort of MetroConnect, World Trade Center San Diego’s flagship export assistance program. Hear remarks from San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria, celebrate emerging global companies, and meet international service providers like Booz Allen Hamilton, Deloitte, and JPMorgan Chase.
In business and in life, our ability to plan is only as effective as our understanding of the circumstances we are working through.
Despite ongoing uncertainties, EDC remains both optimistic for the future and continuously amazed by what San Diego business, academic, community, and civic leaders are building, sustaining, and improving all around us. Looking back at the highlights and headlines of the year that was, our vantage point remains an amazing one.
See what San Diego accomplished in Good News of the Year:
Growing and planting roots in San Diego
This year, several companies moved into and expanded within the region, creating jobs for San Diegans across life sciences, manufacturing, and other industries. Some highlights include:
Eli Lilly, Alexandria Real Estate partner on biotech accelerator
Major acquisitions and IPOs
Local companies continue to prove that San Diego competes on a global stage. Here are some of our region’s standout acquisitions and IPOs throughout the year:
Despite the slowdown in VC investment, San Diego startups continued to secure millions of dollars in funding across sectors including life sciences, AI, agtech, and other innovation industries. More than $3.7 billion flowed into the region this year, including these notable investments:
Unicorn Shield AI with $2.7B valuation raises additional $200M to build AI ‘pilots’ for military aircraft
Boundless Bio snags $100M to continue oncogene-amplified cancers clinical trials
Measurabl lands $93M to expand real estate ESG tool to new geographies
Lenz Therapeutics raises $83.5M to replace eye-glasses with eye drops
Cultivated seafood startup BlueNalu lands $33.5M to scale up San Diego facility
Higher ed institutions double down on research and innovation
Home to the best and brightest—as noted in Clarivate’s highly-influential scientists list—San Diego education institutions continue to foster life-changing innovation. This year we celebrate:
Forbes names UC San Diego #3 and San Diego State University #16 on top public colleges in the U.S.
Miramar College awarded $1.4M grant for math, engineering, science program
National University receives $400K National Science Foundation grant to integrate visual and fine arts with STEM education
City of Chula Vista breaks ground on UniverCity with 6M sq. ft. academic, innovation space
Defense contracts abound
A cornerstone of our regional economy, the military represents almost one-quarter of all jobs in the county and a quarter of the local economy with more than $36 billion in direct defense spending in 2023. Home to global defense innovation powerhouses, new contracts include:
Northrop Grumman, Kratos Technology secure $1.1B in DoD contracts
San Diego to the world
San Diego expanded connections to Tijuana, and to the European and Asian markets. Increased access to these markets facilitates the exchange of talent and expands opportunities to strengthen economic ties. In 2023, global wins include:
San Diego continues to respond to California’s bold commitments to a clean energy future where battery and other sustainable technology will play a major role. It’s no wonder Wallet Hub ranked San Diego #1 on its “Greenest Cities in America” list. Here are some of the locals leading the charge:
Encinitas named in Forbes’ Best Places to Travel in 2023
EDC’s own good news
Top 10 in 2023 San Diego’s good news is EDC’s good news. With and through our investors, our year in review includes support to 117 local companies, more than $3.1 million in export growth through WTCSD programs, 30 new Verified Programs of Talent, and much more.
Smart economic development is inclusive economic development. That’s why for more than six years, EDC’s programs and priorities have been rooted in growing the region’s quality jobs, skilled talent, and thriving households critical to San Diego’s competitiveness. Day-by-day and year-by-year, together with and through 150 investors and partners, EDC chips away and tracks against the region’s Inclusive Growth goals. See how we did it in 2023:
Supported 117 companies across the region.
High growth industries create quality jobs and enable economic mobility. In 2023, EDC’s core economic development work provided 117 companies with economic incentive and export consulting, permitting and regulatory support, marketing/visibility, and more services at no cost, supporting 19,490 total jobs. Key wins include supporting American Lithium Energy in securing $13.2 million in grants to expand operations and triple its workforce, and spotlighting ways the County of San Diego, one of the largest institutional buyers in the region, can award more contracts to local and small businesses.
Globally connected businesses are more resilient. In 2023, through the MetroConnect program and Export SBDC, WTCSD supported 22 small and medium-sized businesses in accessing foreign markets. Notably, this included 15 MetroConnect companies that collectively generated more than $3.1 million in new exports in 2023, a 60 percent increase from the beginning of the program. These commitments earned WTCSD recognition by the U.S. President for Export Service.
San Diego deserves a spot on the global stage. To make our mark, WTCSD led a trade mission to South Korea together with Mayor Todd Gloria, SANDAG and County Board of Supervisors Chair Nora Vargas, and 30 regional delegates from the private, academic, and public sectors. The trip celebrated the partnership of Dexcom and Korean tech giant Kakao, among others, and serves to drive foreign investment and job growth back at home.
Published progress to 2030 Inclusive Growth goals.
Measure what matters. In 2023, EDC released its Inclusive Growth Progress Report. With updated data and bold objectives set around increasing the number of quality jobs, skilled talent, and thriving households critical to the region’s competitiveness, the report measures San Diego’s growth and recovery, and spotlights the greatest threats to prosperity. See this and more at progress.inclusiveSD.org.
Launched digital tools to inform regional decision making.
Affordability is the region’s greatest threat to economic competitiveness. In 2023, EDC launched the San Diego Investment Map, an interactive tool embedded with a range of geographic, employment, development, and transit data, as well as regional analysis. Partners are leveraging insights from the map to inform development and investment decisions such as locating optimal headquarters or office space, identifying priority areas for housing development, or prioritizing on-site childcare.
Published economic intelligence on San Diego’s key industries.
Economic development must be data-driven. In 2023, EDC’s Research Bureau launched several reports on the region’s key industries quantifying:
The economic impact ofSan Diego’s RNA clustertogether with 1STRAND. RNA therapeutics innovation is a key part of the region’s life sciences ecosystem and supports more than 11,000 jobs sitting at the intersection of R&D, manufacturing, trade, and healthcare.
The economic impact of cybersecurity in San Diego together with the Cyber Center of Excellence. Cybersecurity is a rapidly growing $4 billion cluster with more than 1,000 local firms working to help thwart cyber risk across San Diego and beyond.
The proliferation of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI-ML) in Smart Cities together with underwriter Booz Allen Hamilton. Although AI-ML integration with Smart Cities is still in the early stages, if done right these technologies could enable cities to be both more efficient and more inclusive.
Strengthened relationships between employers and training programs.
A competitive innovation economy relies on skilled talent. In 2023, EDC’s Talent Initiatives team quantified the region’s workforce needs, and spotlighted opportunities for employers to lean into talent pipeline development. Wins include:
Computer and Engineering Talent Demand reports spotlighting local demand for tech professionals. To build this pipeline and better connect employers with top regional talent, EDC hosted ‘Reaching Tomorrow’s Talent,’ where employers met and vetted computing and engineering curricula of local universities and training programs and celebrated a new roster of Verified Programs.
San Diego being brought to the forefront of the Navy’s Industrial Base Analysis and Sustainment (IBAS) program, which addresses major gaps in the talent pipelines and supply chains of critical defense industrial base companies. This culminated in an IBAS-hosted event in San Diego where EDC’s Talent Initiatives team presented findings from a Talent Flow Analysis. Ultimately, these efforts have led to several opportunities to pursue funding to build the skilled trades talent pipeline in San Diego.
Sometimes it takes stepping outside of our region to get the best look at who we are and who we want to be. In 2023, EDC hosted a Leadership Trip to Seattle where more than 30 delegates learned about what makes the Pacific Northwest region so successful and what challenges have stymied it most. Major takeaways included bringing federally recognized apprentice program Apprenti to San Diego employers to strengthen our region’s talent pipeline.
Told San Diego’s innovation story to attract talent.
Talent growth requires multiple approaches. In 2023, EDC’s talent attraction brand San Diego: Life. Changing. (SDLC) profiled more than 320 local job opportunities in STEM fields. The Lead was sent to 900 local student subscribers and 3,000+ mid-level STEM professionals across the U.S. SDLC also deployed paid, geotargeted social media campaigns during BIO International, Comic-Con, and the winter months in life sciences hubs Boston, New York, and Chicago.
Celebrated San Diego with investors and regional partners.
Togetherness is our strength. In 2023, more than 800 San Diego leaders joined EDC at Petco Park for our Annual Dinner where we honored Taylor Guitars and Garry Ridge for their life-changing contributions to our region. We then wrapped up summer by celebrating San Diego innovation with more than 400 guests at our 2023 Summer Bash, hosted together with Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. and keynoted by Vuori founder Joe Kudla.
Every week, ‘Good News of the Week’ features a curation of positive headlines from San Diego, delivered straight to your inbox. A blend of aggregated stories from San Diego’s most trusted news sources and original EDC-created content, GNOTW provides a comprehensive recap of the region’s best stories from the past week. GNOTW is sponsored by Manpower San Diego.
Get Good News of the Week in your inbox every Friday.→ Sign up
For the week of December 8, 2023, here’s what we’re reading:
General Atomics (GA) has long been an EDC investor and global leader in nuclear fusion energy and defense research and development. Driving the world’s clean energy future, GA operates the DIII-D National Fusion Facility in San Diego on behalf of the Department of Energy. In early 2023, GA hosted Mayor Todd Gloria at its Sorrento Valley campus as part of a series of tours of the region’s leading innovators.
To fill talent gaps, regional employers vet training curriculum aligned to industry needs
Together with more than a dozen industry partners, EDC is proud to announce the newly designated Verified Programs. Celebrated by industry as best preparing students for jobs in computing and engineering roles these 30 education programs represent 16 different institutions across San Diego and Imperial Counties.
Programs were verified as part of a rigorous evaluation process led by Advancing San Diego, the flagship program of EDC’s Talent Initiatives, which serves to double the production of skilled workers in San Diego while prioritizing historically underrepresented populations in the innovation economy.
San Diego and the nation are facing a talent supply and demand challenge; as innovation clusters grow and non-STEM roles become more technical, increased access to training is critical for sustained economic progress. At the same time, we are seeing demographic changes that will completely change the workforce. More than 50 percent of San Diego’s seventh graders are people of color, a group that has been historically left out when accessing high-wage, high-demand careers. Additionally, across the U.S. nearly 25 percent of the workforce is at or nearing retirement age. To build the talent pipeline of the future, we must ensure San Diegans can reach their highest potential by improving access to quality training programs for job seekers and employers alike.
“Dating back to 2019, Advancing San Diego has formalized EDC’s work to connect industry to local post-secondary education programs—universities, community colleges, and non-traditional training providers—to help meet San Diego’s talent demands. This roster of Verified Programs offers employers a go-to for sourcing qualified talent across the region, helping fill in-demand jobs and supporting San Diego’s inclusive growth and competitiveness,” said Taylor Dunne, Director of Talent Initiatives at EDC.
How programs are verified
Employers vetted applicants at EDC’s ‘Reaching Tomorrow’s Talent’ event on November 15, which brought together more than 150 attendees from business, education, and community who are working to close talent gaps by aligning training with industry needs.
Status as a Verified Program indicates five critical elements of a program:
Alignment of educational curriculum with industry requisites of necessary hard skills (ex: coding)
Alignment of educational curriculum with industry requisites of necessary soft skills (ex: problem solving)
Continuous engagement with industry
Ability to reach and serve a diverse student population
Proven history of collaboration along the education continuum and with critical community organizations
By participating, local training programs got an inside look at critical skill expectations leading industries has for entry level talent, especially amid rapid technology advancement. The two-part verification process required training programs to share training modules or syllabi, proving a connection between learning outcomes and the expressed needs of industry. Each program also had to be prepared for in-person conversations with industry regarding DEI efforts, general collaboration, and more. The 30 programs verified in this round represent 31,000 students, and join a roster of 21 others across key industries including Healthcare, Business, and Life Sciences.
“Participation in the Advancing San Diego Verified Program process always proves beneficial for our programs, encouraging further reflection on learning objectives and the needs of local industry” said Dr. Lynn Neault, Chancellor of the Grossmont-Cuyamaca College District and EDC board member. “From engineering to nursing to skilled trades, we know how important it is that our district’s colleges are offering training to build a strong talent pipeline for our community. We’re honored to have been recognized as part of the region’s Verified Programs.”
hire summer interns at no cost
With the new designation comes the opportunity for students of publicly-funded programs to take advantage of paid work-based learning experiences. In conjunction with Border Region Talent Pipeline K-16 Collaborative, companies in San Diego and Imperial Counties are invited to apply to host funded computing, engineering, and/or business interns for Summer 2024, sourced exclusively from the Verified Programs roster.
“Left Coast Engineering has hired bright local students from funded internship programs like this for three summers and we are always pleased with their preparedness and professionalism,” said Anita Baranowski, CEO of Left Coast Engineering. “As a small engineering design business, we are grateful for the opportunity to expand our headcount and support work for and training of local students as part of Advancing San Diego, all without adding to our payroll.”
Every week, ‘Good News of the Week’ features a curation of positive headlines from San Diego, delivered straight to your inbox. A blend of aggregated stories from San Diego’s most trusted news sources and original EDC-created content, GNOTW provides a comprehensive recap of the region’s best stories from the past week. GNOTW is sponsored by Manpower San Diego.
Get Good News of the Week in your inbox every Friday.→ Sign up
For the week of December 1, 2023, here’s what we’re reading:
Jan. 19—San Diego Workforce Partnership, USD’s Knauss School of Business, San Diego Regional PIC, County of San Diego Economic Roundtable 2024
Opening soon: California Competes Tax Credit
Is your business looking to grow over the next five years or considering leaving the state? You may be eligible for up to $164 million in tax credits from the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development. EDC’s expert team is available at no cost to San Diego companies seeking guidance on the Cal Competes applications open January 2-22.
Every week, ‘Good News of the Week’ features a curation of positive headlines from San Diego, delivered straight to your inbox. A blend of aggregated stories from San Diego’s most trusted news sources and original EDC-created content, GNOTW provides a comprehensive recap of the region’s best stories from the past week. GNOTW is sponsored by Manpower San Diego.
Get Good News of the Week in your inbox every Friday.→ Sign up
For the week of November 17, 2023, here’s what we’re reading:
Chamber, WTCSD to host International Business Affairs Forum
As we look ahead to 2024, the global trade landscape is evolving rapidly, influenced by factors such as technology, Join the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce and World Trade Center San Diego on November 30 for a conversation on the forces that will shape international trade in the year ahead, and how our region can be a leader the global marketplace.
Every week, ‘Good News of the Week’ features a curation of positive headlines from San Diego, delivered straight to your inbox. A blend of aggregated stories from San Diego’s most trusted news sources and original EDC-created content, GNOTW provides a comprehensive recap of the region’s best stories from the past week. GNOTW is sponsored by Manpower San Diego.
Get Good News of the Week in your inbox every Friday.→ Sign up
For the week of November 10, 2023, here’s what we’re reading:
Reaching Tomorrow’s Talent: Verified Programs Designation Day
Last call: Join EDC and Dr. David Miyashiro, award-winning education leader and Cajon Valley Union School District superintendent, to learn about local programs training computing and engineering talent. We’ll hear from talent acquisition and DEI leaders at ResMed, Qualcomm, Sony Electronics, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation.
From San Diego to Korea: Collaborative partnerships to strengthen global competitiveness
It has been six years since World Trade Center San Diego—which EDC operates on behalf of the Port, the Airport, and the City of San Diego—ran its very first trade mission. Since then, we have taken annual targeted, cross-sector delegations to Canada, the UK, Japan, Germany, and the Netherlands. Led by Mayors and Members of Congress, flanked by Port, Airport, and University leadership, and accompanied by senior executives from our most innovative firms, these trade missions connect San Diego companies large and small to international markets, seek foreign investment that creates new jobs in our region, and tell the San Diego story: one of life-changing innovation and collaboration.
This year’s destination: Korea. And like every other year, San Diego showed up and impressed. Led by Mayor Todd Gloria—and joined this time by SANDAG and County Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Nora Vargas—this year’s trade delegation of more than 30 civic, academic, and corporate partners also included peer organizations like Biocom and the Tijuana and Imperial Valley EDCs, as well as companies like Qualcomm, Illumina, Dexcom, ASML, General Dynamics NASSCO, and more.
At a time when more than a trillion dollars of federal investments are aimed at modernizing American infrastructure, enabling a green energy transition, and building domestic capacity in strategic industries like semiconductors and biomanufacturing, Korea is a natural partner for the United States, as evidenced by the deepening collaboration between our two countries. Korea is second only to China in manufacturing intensity, and Korean firms produce almost 25 percent of all EV batteries and almost 60 percent of global memory chips used in phones and laptops.
There is also perhaps no more complementary partner for an innovation incubator like San Diego than a country that scales innovation more efficiently than anywhere else.
The trade mission opened with a Sunday visit to the residence of the Governor of Gyeonggi-do, Korea’s largest and most dynamic province. Governor Kim and his cabinet hosted us for a roundtable discussion focused on revitalizing the MOU between the state of California and Gyeonggi. We delivered a letter from Governor Newsom and invited a return delegation to visit California in 2024 to continue the conversation on economic cooperation.
This set the stage for a whirlwind four days packed from morning to night with more than 15 briefings, meetings, and events:
With the help of Dentons and the U.S. Embassy, we convened representatives from more than 30 of the largest Korean companies for an Invest San Diego Luncheon. We provided an economic overview of investment opportunities throughout the binational mega-region, followed by quick pitches on manufacturing, energy, innovation, and real estate projects from Tijuana, Imperial Valley, and San Diego.
We visited the rapidly growing Korean offices of Illumina and Qualcomm, and announced a new partnership between San Diego’s Dexcom and Korean tech giant Kakao.
We toured and met with leadership of Samsung Biologics, which in just a few years has grown into the world’s largest contract manufacturer of biologics and is considering the location of a large investment in the United States.
We celebrated partnerships between UCSD and SDSU—both developing new state of the art innovation districts—and Seoul National and Yonsei Universities, two of South Korea’s finest.
We spent a day in the City of Incheon—a city of millions that has been master planned and developed on land reclaimed from the ocean over the last two decades and is now the innovation hub of the greater Seoul area. Incheon is also home to the international airport, completed in just eight years, as well as the Port, completed in four.
Finally, we closed the trip with a VIP meeting with U.S. Ambassador to Korea Philip Goldberg to discuss the evolving political and economic environment in the region, followed by a reception at the Ambassador’s residence in the former legation district of Seoul. As is the tradition on these trade missions, this reception gave us an opportunity to reconnect with the hundreds of partners we met during the week, cement new friendships (and perhaps most importantly, make sure everyone knows which team to root for when the Padres play the Dodgers in the MLB opener in Seoul next March).
We returned home this week to a region in which the entire urban core is being reimagined—with massive mixed-use projects under construction from the border to the bay; to a country attempting to rebuild its infrastructure and establish new industries to take us into a cleaner, smarter future; and in a post-pandemic world where supply chains and geopolitical alliances are shifting rapidly.
One thing is clear: Our binational region has always been a remarkable place, but at this moment—with San Diego’s innovation ecosystem, Imperial Valley’s clean energy leadership, and Tijuana’s advanced manufacturing prowess—we can compete like never before. Add the right international partnerships like those we are building in Korea and elsewhere, and we have all the necessary pieces to anchor the supply chains of the future: collaboratively, efficiently, and sustainably.
Thank you to our sponsors Qualcomm, Dentons, and Townshend Venture Advisors, as well our partner the U.S. Embassy in South Korea for support on this trade mission.
Best,
Nikia Clarke
Senior Vice President; Executive Director, World Trade Center San Diego
