The third annual meeting of the CEO Leadership Alliance of Orange County (CLA-OC) highlighted a hopeful silver lining amid the myriad challenges of 2020. Business, education and nonprofit leaders engaged around a framework to elevate OC to compete worldwide as a top-tier innovation region fostered through a vision of creating brighter futures and better jobs.
More than 150 stakeholders joined virtually to focus on the components of this framework put into effect during the year, and provide individual feedback and input to help inform and guide its focus moving forward.
Edwards Lifesciences CEO Mike Mussallem set the tone for the video call, reaffirming CLA-OC’s goal to realize a collective vision of a thriving Orange County for all, along with the specific accomplishments laying the groundwork for meaningful impact in the coming year.
Pacific Life CEO Jim Morris has remained dedicated to collaborating with stakeholders focused on building a strong pipeline of innovation talent. In his remarks he noted that numerous working groups have formed to implement the CLA-OC plan to connect more closely with universities to retain and develop innovation talent.
CLA-OC is privileged to be in a role to help stimulate collaboration and convene leaders such as Henry Samueli, who in his remarks reinforced the importance of retaining talent in Orange County who represent the innovation workforce of the future. Kim Letch, OC Managing Partner for Ernst & Young facilitated an effective component of the meeting that saw the overall community of participants divided into a series of small group discussions that yielded a wealth of compelling ideas and feedback.
We hope to be a catalyst to identify key issues, bring the right data to the discussion, engage key stakeholders around common success metrics and then learn and adjust together. In our mission to harness the collective energy of our community to effect long-term system change, more OC leaders are encouraged to become involved in the CLA-OC workstream efforts.
Please contact Karly Simpson for details.