Arizona Senator John McCain, the presumptive Republican Presidential nominee, joined California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in a roundtable discussion on Global Competitiveness and Innovation on May 22 at Finelite in Union City, California. Finelite was asked to host the event as it has been a leader in designing and building high-performance, environmentally sustainable lighting systems. The company supports more than 65 local manufacturing jobs and has won numerous innovation and environmental awards. Finelite CEO Terry Clark introduced the panel co-chair and former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, who was then joined by John Chambers, Chairman and CEO of Cisco Systems.
With a backdrop of Finelite’s factory operations, Governor Schwarzenegger discussed the importance that technology plays in a strong and vibrant economy. He cited the long track record of innovation found in Silicon Valley. Senator McCain discussed his views on what needs to be done to keep America as an innovation leader and allow us to become oil independent. He discussed with the panelists the obstacles that entrepreneurs and businesses face that hinder progress and what the government needs to address. Prior to speaking, both the Senator and Governor toured Finelite’s offices, demonstrating lighting innovation in action.
In 1991, Terry Clark formed the company because he saw the tremendous value of high-performance indirect lighting in America’s workplaces and schools. Through innovation, Finelite’s products are able to reduce energy consumption to more than 50% below national building standards.
This was Governor Schwarzenegger’s second visit to Finelite. In December 2007, he spoke about the importance of health care reform to businesses.
Other panelists for the Global Competitiveness Roundtable included:
• Conrad Burke, President and CEO of Innovalight, Inc., developer of ultra low-cost thin-film solar modules using a proprietary silicon-ink process;
• Shellye Archambeau, CEO of MetricStream, a software company helping business with Government, Risk and Compliance solutions;
• Vivek Ranadive, Chairman and CEO of TIBCO, a leading business integration and process management software company;
• Lance Tokuda, CEO and founder of RockYou, a video and slideshow sharing application used by Facebook, MySpace, and others; and
• Maynard Webb, CEO of LiveOps, a virtual call center company that employs 20,000 home-based agents.
Links:
Wall Street Journal Coverage
Washington Post Coverage
