Carl Guardino, President and CEO of the 375-member Silicon Valley Leadership Group, is a member of the Bay Area Super Bowl Bid Committee.

“It’s positive and poetic that Super Bowl 50,  the Golden Anniversary, is coming to the Golden State and will be hosted by the 49ers in 2016. It’s been an honor to serve on the 17-member Super Bowl Bid Committee that has landed this landmark event for the Bay Area. Our local leaders have proven once again that we can set aside parochial issues and work for the good of the region.”

]]> http://svlg.org/super-bowl-50-golden-anniversary-in-the-golden-state/feed 0 http://svlg.org/the-leader-may-2013 http://svlg.org/the-leader-may-2013#comments Thu, 02 May 2013 16:19:09 +0000 http://svlg.org/?p=9436 Click here to read the The Leader May 2013

The Silicon Valley Leadership Group ROI

By Carl Guardino, President and CEO

Return on Investment – ROI – is what the member company executives of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group seek and deserve through their engagement with the organization.

I could not be more proud of our members and staff for the efforts we are leading in the region, state and nation to advance our ambitious agenda.

Let me reference the ROI of just one day – yesterday, May 1 – in the life of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group:

* Launch of Virgin America direct air service between San Jose and Los Angeles: Joining Sir Richard Branson and Virgin America CEO David Cush, the Leadership Group helped launched this new service, with four daily round trip flights, after three years of thoughtful advocacy with Virgin America. From the podium, Sir Richard Branson voiced our goal – as his goal – that Virgin America build on this partnership to one day (soon) add direct flights between San Jose and New York, and San Jose to DC. Kudos to staff colleague Bena Chang for leading our airport task force efforts, under the leadership of San Jose Mercury News Publisher Mac Tully and San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed.

* 9th “Women & Girls Leadership Summit” in San Francisco: In partnership with SF County Supervisor Jane Kim, and sponsored by Intel, Webcor and First Tech Credit Union, we hosted our 9th Summit in just the past three years, with 75 women tech executives and 150 middle school students at an under-privileged school in the city. In addition to a day of inspiration, we funded their equipment requests for their science lab, and offered opportunities to the students for our “1,000 Hearts” tutoring initiative, and opportunities for the teachers for the IISME Summer Fellowship Program.

* Sacramento Advocacy: While those two efforts took place, three members of our policy team were each testifying – as lead witnesses – on state legislation of importance to our members in Sacramento. Tax Policy VP Kirk Everett was a lead witness in support of SB 209, a bi-partisan measure by Republican Assemblyman Jeff Gorell and Democrat Senator Ted Lieu to reverse the retroactive tax initiated by the Franchise Tax Board that would hurt investors in small businesses. Concurrently, VP Shiloh Ballard was a lead witness speaking on behalf of Senate President Steinberg for his CEQA modernization bill SB 731 (see my blog for details) and SVP Dennis Cima was a lead witness supporting a key workforce pipeline bill, SB 594, also by Senate President Steinberg. All three bills passed out of their policy committees yesterday.

Return on Investment – our members deserve no less, and our professional staff continues to deliver each and every day.

State competitiveness and job creation focus of annual Sacramento trip

By Dennis Cima, Senior Vice President

The Silicon Valley Leadership Group’s annual Sacramento Advocacy Trip this month will focus on two key issues aimed at continuing to help California emerge from the recession: California’s economic competitiveness and its jobs climate.

Included in this year’s policy portfolio are efforts to reform the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA); bolster the state’s manufacturing and research and development infrastructure; improve the Bay-Delta water infrastructure; further invest in the state’s education and workforce pipeline; and to seek support for federal comprehensive immigration reform.

More than 50 member companies will be represented on the May 22 trip. To register: Leadership Group Annual Sacramento Trip. Questions can be directed to Kirk Everett and Grace Kay.

One of the key items we’ll be talking to Legislators and the Governor’s staff about is the Leadership Group’s efforts to protect CEQA’s fundamental purpose—environmental protection and public engagement. The Leadership Group wants to preserve the authority CEQA vests in local governments and, at the same time, minimize the abuse of CEQA by interest groups with agendas that have nothing to do with the environment.

Additionally, our portfolio includes a variety of measures to improve California’s tax system and to encourage private sector investment in the state. The Leadership Group supports efforts to authorize a sales and use tax exemption for purchases of specified equipment and materials for manufacturing. California is one of only a few states that taxes manufacturing equipment and it is imperative that the state alter this practice to encourage innovation and job creation.

Leadership Group members will also share their policy principles with state leaders on Proposition 39 implementation, pension reform, on the proposed changes to the K-12 funding formula and on the use of the cap and trade auction revenues.

As in past years, this full-day activity will include meetings with the Governor’s Office, cabinet officials, state constitutional officers, and the majority and minority leaders in the state Senate and Assembly. Our groups will break into teams to meet directly with individual legislators who lead key policy committees in the Capitol that affect Silicon Valley’s economic competitiveness.

Our thanks to the many Silicon Valley’s elected officials who will be joining us in a strong showing of private and public sector support for the Valley and state’s economic prosperity.

Technology is changing the way we get around. . . with Silicon Valley leading the Charge

By Jessica Zenk, Senior Director, Transportation Policy

When you think about transportation, what comes to mind? Highways, cars and trucks, maybe a train or bus, and maybe even a bike? Today, transportation also is about software, information communication technology and big data, which are quickly transforming mobility in ways that bode well for the sustainability of our transportation system (accounting for roughly 40 percent of our GHG emissions in California). How’s that? Keep reading and join us at Silicon Valley: Driving Charged & Connected on June 6th and 7th to continue the conversation.

New technology – which has improved vehicle safety, fuel-efficiency and navigation – has drawn the auto industry to Silicon Valley in record numbers. Nearly all automakers worldwide have opened Silicon Valley R&D facilities to attract engineers working on everything from autonomous vehicles to electric vehicles and battery technology to voice recognition technology.

Technology also makes it easier to avoid driving or owning a car. Mobile devices and realtime information make getting around on transit more convenient, and allows riders to better use their time during a rail or bus trip – working, catching up with friends, or relaxing with streaming videos or music on transit with wifi, like VTA’s Light Rail and Express Bus vehicles. Entrepreneurs are also applying innovations from the “sharing” economy to vehicles. Roughly two dozen providers offer car sharing in the U.S. And the movement is growing: up 44 percent in 2012 from 2011, according to Susan Shaheen, co-director of UC Berkeley’s Transportation Sustainability Research Center.

This uptick in people taking advantage of car sharing illustrates a broader trend: people, especially millennials, just aren’t that into driving. As described by Ad Age, many younger people eschew the costs – both personal and environmental – of cars. They value time and connections differently – for example, a 2010 survey by ZipCar found that more than half of respondents 18 to 34 choose to spend time with friends via text, phone or social media rather than traveling to see them in person. Add to this the impending “silver tsunami” (aging of the baby boomers), and our demographics point to a population in the U.S. with vastly different mobility needs and preferences than in recent memory.

Taken as a whole, shifting cultural preferences and technology are conspiring to change our attitudes towards transportation and steering us down a more sustainable, livable path. I encourage you to be part of this revolution – join us in June to learn how to harness cutting edge transportation technologies to improve your business, communities, employees, and day-to-day lives.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (April 30, 2013) – The Silicon Valley Leadership Group, representing more than 375 of Silicon Valley’s most respected employers, today announced that it will work with its members and other companies to ensure the successful implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) during its Health Happens in the Workplace employer wellness conference at Microsoft Silicon Valley . 

“The Silicon Valley Leadership Group has long focused on policies and programs that improve health outcomes and reduce overall health care costs for employers and employees,” said Carl Guardino, President and CEO of the Leadership Group. “Silicon Valley employers know the value of programs that keep people healthy and recognize the value of comprehensive wellness programs to reduce health care costs and improve the health and productivity of their workforces.”

A key element of the ACA is keeping employees healthy and addressing rising health care costs through the promotion of wellness in the workplace. Silicon Valley companies are increasing opportunities and making it easier for employees to bike to work, providing tools and apps to track and increase physical activity, and incentivizing employees to take health assessments, meet with health coaches and sign up for classes nutrition and weigh loss classes. These programs save money and improve the quality of life for employees.

“As the largest provider of health insurance, employers play a critical role in the well-being of their employees,” said Robert K. Ross, M.D., President and CEO of The California Endowment. “Wellness programs at work provide a strategic advantage as companies work to contain costs.  Companies in the Silicon Valley are demonstrating leadership in improving the health of our communities by making health happen in the workplace.”

Today’s Health Happens in the Workplace employer wellness conference, intended for targeting executives and human resources personnel, presented workplace wellness tips and strategies from leaders at Microsoft, Brocade, Facebook, Kaiser Permanente and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Offering Silicon Valley’s best examples of preventative care, the conference motivated other companies to implement, or expand, similar workplace wellness programs.

Other event supporters include The California Endowment, El Camino Hospital, Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford, Sutter Health – Palo Alto Medical Foundation, Santa Clara County Public Health Department,  Foster City Chamber, Milpitas Chamber, Mountain View Chamber of Commerce, Peninsula Traffic Congestion Relief Alliance, San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition, Silicon Valley Council of Nonprofits, Small Business Majority, Stanford Health Promotion Network, Stone Meadow Benefits, SV/San Jose Chamber of Commerce, Integrated Benefits Institute, commute.org, and ACT (Association for Commuter Transportation)

Since 2010, The California Endowment has worked to build awareness around the benefits of the ACA and promote its implementation –among California’s business community. The health care law encourages employers to develop preventive care and wellness programs for their employees.  Provisions of the law include a number of measures like premium discounts and grants to promote wellness programs that offer incentives for employees who maintain or achieve certain wellness outcomes.

The Silicon Valley Leadership Group is deeply committed to making health care more accessible and affordable to all. Businesses provide health insurance coverage to nearly 60 percent of Americans and are an important part of the solution to cut spending and improving our nation’s health. The Affordable Care Act is laying the foundation for creating a culture of health and prevention both in the workplace and beyond by transforming the nation’s health care system from treatment-based to prevention-based care.

To learn more about how the Affordable Care Act is making prevention possible for millions of Californians visit, http://bit.ly/Y2Si8j.

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About The Silicon Valley Leadership Group

The Silicon Valley Leadership Group, founded in 1978 by David Packard of Hewlett-Packard, represents more than 375 of Silicon Valley’s most respected employers on issues, programs and campaigns that affect the economic health and quality of life in Silicon Valley, including energy, transportation, education, housing, health care, tax policies, economic vitality and the environment. Leadership Group members collectively provide nearly one of every three private sector jobs in Silicon Valley and contribute more than $3 trillion to the worldwide economy. Learn more by visiting http://svlg.org.

About The California Endowment
The California Endowment, a private, statewide health foundation, was established in 1996 to expand access to affordable, quality health care for underserved individuals and communities, and to promote fundamental improvements in the health status of all Californians. Headquartered in downtown Los Angeles, The Endowment has regional offices in Sacramento, Oakland, Fresno and San Diego, with program staff working throughout the state. The Endowment challenges the conventional wisdom that medical settings and individual choices are solely responsible for people’s health. The Endowment believes that health happens in neighborhoods, schools, and with prevention. For more information, visit www.calendow.org.

Love Your Commute

By Jessica Zenk, Senior Director, Transportation Policy

“It’s about health and wellness – and building it into the daily lives of our employees.” Jackie Szeto, Brocade.

“I show up to work energized and ready for the day – and I simply show up to work more, with fewer illnesses and quicker recovery time.” Terry Barton, Facebook.

“I love my commute. It’s fun. How many people can say that?” Dan Foudy, Project Engineer, Webcor Builders.

As a nation we face an obesity epidemic and skyrocketing healthcare costs, declining resources to address transportation needs and a changing climate. As critical as these issues are, they are also daunting.  But help is on the way.

At Health Happens in the Workplace, April 30^th at Microsoft, Silicon Valley Leadership Group members and our partners will dive into the details of how successful companies are making it easy, fun and safe to bike, walk or take transit. And it comes just in time for Bike to Work Day (May 9^th) and Month (throughout May). Our friends at the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition will send you home with a bike to work kit or even lead you on a beautiful ride from the Mountain View Caltrain Station to Microsoft.

Silicon Valley businesses and cities increasingly appreciate the potential of biking to transform our commutes, health and communities. It’s about productivity; retention and attraction; wellness; sustainability; livable communities; it’s about joy in the journey.

Enlightened companies focus on wellness and prevention, not treatment on the back end – it’s smarter and cheaper. Just like individuals, they see the wisdom in utilizing commute time for exercise. When companies can cut back on parking, they save money and free up real estate for productive use. And it’s pretty cheap to provide helmets, bikes and even bike and pedestrian infrastructure – much more cost effective than other proven strategies to get commuters out of cars. Probably most importantly, these companies see that employees feel valued, connected and are likely to stay when their commutes are full of joy rather than stress.

We encourage you to come hear about successful strategies that fit any sized company and budget, from new bike facilities to “bike-pools” to team-building efforts like the Company Bike Challenge. Moreover, we encourage you to dust off your bike over the coming weeks. Check out our website and tips for employers and commuters. Whether you’re a brand new rider or an experienced cyclist, please join us on two wheels – starting during bike to work month and continuing every day.

Rebooting the state’s K-12 finance system

By Dennis Cima, Senior Vice President

Early in my tenure at the Leadership Group, the former chairman of our board, a very prominent Silicon Valley CEO with a deep passion for public K-12 education, asked me to come to his office to update him on the state’s education policy landscape.  As we talked, the topic of education finance came up; I was afraid that it would.

I was confident that I could provide a high-level overview of educational governance and how funds flowed to local districts.  However, I feared that he would ask me why the system was set up that way.  He did.  In fact, for nearly every answer I provided, he countered with “Yes, but why?”

After a lengthy discussion, he noted that the state’s K-12 education finance system, although well intentioned, was in need of a reboot.  He called the arcane system a “spaghetti code,” which he likened to an outdated computer program containing fix after fix that ultimately results in an unrecognizable jumble of strands, exceptions, rules and dead ends.  He concluded that the K-12 education finance system should be scrapped and replaced with one that was true to the mission of the system:  providing resources to districts to serve the educational needs of students in a fair and transparent fashion.

Today, we have an opportunity to eliminate the spaghetti.

Governor Jerry Brown has proposed that the state should indeed press the “reset button” on its K-12 education finance system and should redesign it in such a way that it treats all students in all districts equitably.  It is important that our Legislature take this proposal seriously and act upon it.

The goal of the Governor’s new K-12 finance system, known as the “Local Control Funding Formula,” is to simplify the way that schools are funded with the goal of placing more authority at the local level through consistent base funding and by directing additional funds to school districts based on their enrollments of high-needs students.  This is not a proposal that seeks to add other strand to the tangle.

Certainly, a new system will not be able to undo all of the failings of the current system in one swoop, as modest transition will be needed.  But if we truly want schools and districts to be nimble and accountable — and if we truly want to invest in all children appropriately — we can no longer tolerate an outdated, irrational and overly complex education finance system that yields unacceptable inequities and poor student outcomes.

For more information, please visit http://caweightedformula.com.

Welcome to The Leader – San Jose and Samsung

By Carl Guardino, President and CEO, Silicon Valley Leadership Group

San Jose’s recent Samsung partnership is smart public policy.

Although most of the headlines before the vote focused on the fact that San Jose was giving Samsung Semiconductor a $7 million incentive to expand its R&D facilities on North First Street, it’s important to take note of the significant return the city is getting for its investment.

First, the incentive package was not in cash, but in reduced fees like traffic impact fees, utility taxes and production and assembly equipment purchases.

Second, Samsung will grow its R&D workforce from its current 370 high-tech, high-skilled, high-wage jobs to an anticipated 2,000 employees 10 years from now.  That’s 1,630 new high-tech jobs in San Jose.

And $23 million will be generated for city residents from the Samsung expansion in terms of property tax revenue, business and utility taxes. That is a net gain of $16 million.

In addition, the City wisely included “Claw Back” provisions that require Samsung to pay if the promised jobs and expansion never materialize.

San Jose once again showed it can compete against other regions, states and nations. Mayor Reed’s and the City Council’s wise investment has a hard to beat three-fold return.

In a letter organized by TechNet, the bipartisan policy and political network of technology CEOs that promotes the growth of the innovation economy, the executives wrote to the President and Congressional leadership to call for reforms to enable a more open and flexible U.S. immigration system to embrace highly-skilled workers.

The following is the text of the letter from leading technology executives:

“One of the biggest economic challenges facing our nation is the need for more qualified, highly-skilled professionals, domestic and foreign, who can create jobs and immediately contribute to and improve our economy. As leaders of technology companies from around the country, we want to thank you for your sincere efforts in addressing high skilled immigration and we urge that you and your colleagues enact reform legislation this year.

 “As you know, the United States has a long history of welcoming talented, hard- working people to our shores. Immigrant entrepreneurs have gone on to found thousands of companies with household names like eBay, Google, PayPal and Yahoo! to name just a few. These companies provide jobs, drive economic growth and generate tax revenue at all levels of government.

 “Yet because our current immigration system is outdated and inefficient, many high- skilled immigrants who want to stay in America are forced to leave because they are unable to obtain permanent visas. Some do not bother to come in the first place. This is often due to visa shortages, long waits for green cards, and lack of mobility. We believe that numerical levels and categories for high-skilled nonimmigrant and immigrant visas should be responsive to market needs and, where appropriate, include mechanisms to fluctuate based on objective standards. In addition, spouses and children should not be counted against the cap of high-skilled immigrant visas. There should not be a marriage or family penalty.

 “According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are tens of thousands of unfilled jobs requiring highly skilled individuals. Four high-tech companies alone – IBM, Intel, Microsoft and Oracle – have combined 10,000 openings in the United States. Each one of these jobs has the potential to create many others, directly and indirectly. Bipartisan legislation currently introduced in the Senate, such as The Immigration Innovation Act of 2013, and the Start-Up Visa Act, will encourage innovation here in the U.S. by allowing American companies and entrepreneurs to have access to the talented workers they need while simultaneously investing in STEM education here in the U.S. We know what it will take to keep America in a position of global leadership. We know that when America is leading, our economic growth follows to the benefit of our nation’s workforce.

 “We call on you to address the need for more qualified, highly-skilled professionals, domestic and foreign, and to enact immigration reform this year. We look forward to working with you and your colleagues in a bipartisan way as we move forward in our common interest.”

The following executives have signed on to the letter:

Jim Breyer, Partner, Accel Partners; Khaled Naim, Co-Founder and CEO, Addy Inc.; Eric Davidson, President, American Automation & Communications, Inc.; Bob Abernethy, President, American Standard Development Company; Pablo Diaz-Gutierrez, CTO, Appfluence LLC; Mike Splinter, CEO, Applied Materials; Robert Nelsen, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, ARCH Venture Partners; Jonathan Zuck, President, Association for Competitive Technology; Randall Stephenson, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, AT&T; Michael Pope, President, Audio Video Interiors, Inc.; Jim Wunderman, President and CEO, Bay Area Council; KR Sridhar, CEO, Bloom Energy; Ralph Dangelmaier, CEO and President, BlueSnap; David Hagan, President and CEO, Boingo Wireless; Bernard Yoo, Co-founder, Bombfell, Inc.; Robert Holleyman, President and CEO, BSA | The Software Alliance; John Chambers, CEO, Cisco; Todd Thibodeaux, CEO, CompTIA; Paige Rasid, COO, Connecticut Technology Council; Gary Shapiro, CEO and President, Consumer Electronics Association; Gary Yacoubian, Past Chairman, Consumer Electronics Association; Edward Aten, Founder and CEO, CopThis, Inc; Cherian Thomas, Co-founder and CEO, Cucumbertown; Michael Baker, CEO, DataXu, Inc.; Don Means, Founder and Principal, Digital Village; John Donahoe, CEO, eBay, Inc.,  Fabio Rosati, President and CEO, Elance, Inc.; Timothy Healy, CEO, EnerNOC, Inc.; Kevin Hartz, CEO, Eventbrite; Mark Zuckerberg, Cofounder, Chairman and CEO, Facebook; John McAdam, President and CEO, F5 Networks Inc.; Randy Fry, President, Fry’s Electronics, Inc.; David Inns, CEO, GreatCall Inc.; Gagan Biyani, Co-Founder, Growth Hackers Conference; Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman, Google; Jindou Lee, Founder, Happy Inspector; Koichi Fujikawa, Co-founder, Hapyrus Inc.; Meg Whitman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Hewlett-Packard Company; Robert Struble, President and CEO, iBiquity Digital Corporation; James Hamilton, CEO, Identity Ventures LLC; Fred Hoch, CEO, Illinois Technology Association; Dean Garfield, President and CEO, Information Technology Industry Council; Paul Otellini, CEO, Intel; Adriane Brown, President and COO, Intellectual Ventures; Peter Corbett, Founder and CEO, iStrategyLabs; Mitchell Gaynor, Executive Vice President, Secretary, & General Counsel, Juniper Networks; Vitaly Golomb, CEO, Keen Systems; John Doerr, Partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers; Shaun Cross, CEO, Lee & Hayes; George Nethercutt, Of Counsel, Lee & Hayes; Marty Beard, CEO, LiveOps, Inc; Jake Sigal, CEO, Livio; John Hering, CEO, Lookout, Inc.; Karl Sun, CEO, Lucid Software Inc.; Matt McIlwain, Managing Director, Madrona Venture Group; Tom Savage, Vice President, Global Legal Affairs and Governmental Policy, Marvell Semiconductor, Inc.; Tom Hopcroft, CEO, Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council; Sagar Mehta, CTO, Meet Mikey; Bradford L.  Smith, General Counsel and Executive Vice President, Legal and Corporate Affairs, Microsoft; Ted Smith, CEO, MIND Research; Loyd Ivey, CEO, Mitek Electronics & Communications Group; Bob Greifeld, Chief Executive Officer, NASDAQ OMX; Mark Heesen, President, National Venture Capital Association; Fred Kocher, President, New Hampshire High Tech Council; Maxine Ballen, CEO, New Jersey Technology Association; Erik K. Grummelmann, Ph.D., Executive Director, New York Technology Council; Brooks Raiford, CEO, North Carolina Technology Association; Safra Catz, President and CFO, Oracle; Peter Craig, Chairman, Orange County Technology Alliance; Joseph Taylor, Chairman and CEO, Panasonic Corporation of North America; Alan Wells, CEO, Pocket Labs, Inc; Paul Lambert, President, Point B Management Consulting; Joshua Marti, CEO, Point Inside Inc.; Maryse Thomas, CEO, Pokeware; Dr. Paul E. Jacobs, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, Qualcomm Incorporated; Timothy Lipton, Co-Founder and CFO, ReAllocate, Inc.; Kim Folsom, CEO, Reel Qualified, Inc.; Steve Case, Chairman and CEO, Revolution LLC; Jean-Sebastien Boulanger, CTO, Rewardli Inc.; Kathie Shields, Executive Director, Rhode Island Tech Collective; Michael Pope, President, Safety Technologies, Inc.; Kate Mitchell, Partner, Scale Venture Partners; Brian Toohey, CEO, Semiconductor Industry Association; Greg Becker, President and CEO, Silicon Valley Bank; Carl Guardino, President and CEO, Silicon Valley Leadership Group; Benoit Passot, CEO, SimPolaris; Brent Frei, Chairman, Smartsheet; Jim Weldon, CEO, Solar Junction; Michael Mayernick, Co-founder, Spinnakr; Daniel Pidgeon, Chairman, Starpower; Ron Conway, Partner, SV Angels; Aart de Geus, Chairman and Co-CEO, Synopsys, Inc.; Heather Kenyon, CEO, Tampa Bay Technology Forum; Mary Hale, CFO, Taos Mountain, Inc.; Scott Allison, CEO, Teamly Inc; Shawn Osborne, President and CEO, TechAmerica; Rey Ramsey, CEO, TechNet; Tino Mantella, President, Technology Association of Georgia; Skip Newberry, President, Technology Association of Oregon; Doug Young, COO, The ASCII Group; Michael Beckerman, President and  CEO, The Internet Association; Steven Tiffen, President and CEO, The Tiffen Company; Jonathan Swanson, Co-Founder and President, Thumbtack; Michael Green, CEO, TipTopMed; Ariel Camus, CEO, TouristEye; Lew McMurran, Vice President of Government and External Affairs, Washington Technology Industry Association; David Rusenko, CEO, Weebly; Anush Ramani, CTO, Xola Inc.; James Zimmerman, CEO, Xola.com, Stanford Medical Center; and Mark Pincus, CEO, Zynga.

The leading technology associations joining TechNet in this effort include: Association for Competitive Technology; Bay Area Council; Consumer Electronics Association; Information Technology Industry Council; Internet Association; National Venture Capital Association; Silicon Valley Leadership Group; and TechAmerica.

A copy of the letter is available at www.technet.org.

Media Contacts:

TechNet:  Jim Hock, 463 Communications, 202-463-0013 ext. 202, jim.hock@463.com

Association for Competitive Technology: Jonathan Godfrey, 202-331-2130, jgodfrey@actonline.org

Bay Area Council:  Rufus Jeffris, 415-946-8725, rjeffris@bayareacouncil.org

Consumer Electronics Association: Laura Hubbard, 703-907-4326, lhubbard@ce.org

Information Technology Industry Council: Meghan Fletcher, 202-524-4389, mfletcher@itic.org

Internet Association: Betsy Barrett, betsy@internetassociation.org

National Venture Capital Association: Emily Mendell,  610-565-3904, emendell@nvca.org

TechAmerica: Stephanie Craig, 202-682-4443, Stephanie.craig@techamerica.org

Silicon Valley Leadership Group:  Steve Wright, 408-501-7853, swright@svlg.org

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Welcome to The Leader – Annual CEO Business Climate Survey

By Carl Guardino, President & CEO, Silicon Valley Leadership Group

We recently released our 10th Annual CEO Business Climate Survey – completed by 177 Silicon Valley CEOs and senior officers, who drive the earth’s innovation economy. They are cautiously optimistic about the Valley economy in 2013, with roughly half expecting to hire this year and only 10 percent expecting staff reductions.

The survey also identified strengths to celebrate and challenges to address.

The strengths, which I call the “six t’s” of Silicon Valley’s secret sauce:

1. Access to skilled labor – talent
2. Entrepreneurial mindset – temperament
3. Proximity to customers and competitors – territory
4. World class universities – training
5. Access to venture capital – treasure
6. The climate and weather – temperature
The challenges:
1. High housing costs
2. High personal income tax rates for our workers and families
3. Business regulations – especially the misuse of the California Environmental Quality Act
4. Traffic congestion
The full survey results are available here. Let’s make time to make a difference.

That’s why the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, in coordination with New York Mayor Bloomberg’s office, and other tech partners, launched the “March for Innovation.” The march is an effort to galvanize the tech community and others to participate in a “virtual march” on Washington in mid-April to create an internet “thunder clap” of support at one time specifically for high-skilled workers reform to keep our Valley and country competitive in the global economy. We hope you will join us. You can participate by signing up at http://www.marchforinnovation.com.

The Sacramento-San Joaquin River supplies some 25 million residents with water, and helps irrigate millions of acres of farmland. Silicon Valley relies on water from the Delta to meet over 50 percent of our annual water needs. Yet, after decades of inaction, the Delta is at serious risk.  For example, we know that an earthquake could dissolve the Delta’s 150-year old network of fragile levees, allowing saltwater from San Francisco Bay to contaminate the water supply for much of the state.  The Delta’s complex ecosystem is also in decline due to agricultural, industrial, and urban runoff and an influx of invasive, non-native species. Left unaddressed, this crisis will adversely impact California’s economy, environment, and millions of residents throughout the state.

Welcome to The Leader – Leveraging Limited Resources

By Carl Guardino, President & CEO, Silicon Valley Leadership Group

Those who know me are keenly aware of a core belief – “I can be generous with my own money, but incredibly frugal with our Member Companies money.”  With this in mind, the Leadership Group strives to leverage limited resources to expand our effectiveness through strategic partnerships at the regional, state and federal level.

In this month’s “Leader,” we highlight two top priorities in our 2013 work plan: Immigration reform for highly-skilled workers and modernization of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).  Rather than “go it alone,” we take the time to build or join Coalitions to “go further together.”

On Immigration Reform, we have proactively partnered at the national level with outstanding organizations like the Business Roundtable, ITI, Consumer Electronics Association, TechAmerica and others.  We combine this with the active engagement of our relatively new “National Metro Coalition” of 20 like-minded regional business associations and regional chambers of commerce.

On modernization of CEQA, we co-chair a statewide coalition called “The CEQA Working Group” which consists of dozens of regional partners like the Orange County Business Council, Los Angeles Chamber and LA EDC, San Diego Chamber, Bay Area Council, Contra Costa Council and Sacramento Chamber, along with solid statewide partners like the CA Alliance for Jobs, CA Business Roundtable, NAIOP and others.

A great leader once said, “It is amazing what we can accomplish when we do not care who gets the credit.”  The Leadership Group, by proactively partnering with others, expands our effectiveness, more efficiently engages our members and increases our chances for success.

 Startup CEOs Advocate in D.C. for Immigration Reform

By Staff

After 12 years of advocating for high-skilled worker immigration reform by the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, among others, there appears to be significant momentum in Washington, D.C. for change. Year after year we’ve traveled with member-company CEOs to our nation’s capitol to provide vivid examples of why our country’s immigration policy needed revision and now we are hopeful that this will be the year for significant reform.

With the help of members Silicon Valley Bank,Virgin America, NASDAQ and Crescendo Ventures we’re on Capitol Hill and in the White House again this week with a dozen startup CEOs to discuss why high-skilled worker immigration reform is vital to the innovation economy.

Several venture capitalists and local university administrators are participating in the trip, demonstrating the ecosystem involved in making our Innovation Economy a success. Our key message has been:  “Get the job done.”

We have met with more than 20 key members of the Senate, House and Administration to discuss policies that spur startup growth, including the Startup Act 2.0. The conversations with Senators and Congress members were driven by the reforms needed to ensure our innovation economy has the talent necessary to help companies grow and compete in the global economy. Here are a few of the changes we think are necessary:
• Establish a market-based H-1B cap.
• Exempt U.S. advanced degree graduates from the H-1B cap.
• Provide visas and green cards to startup entrepreneurs and STEM degree holders.
• Exempt U.S. advanced degree graduates, as well as foreign advanced STEM degree graduates with U.S. work experience, from the green card cap.
• Exempt spouses and children of green card recipients from the green card cap
These changes would help offset the projected deficit of 3 million college graduates needed to meet the demands of the innovation economy. We applaud the efforts made by Senators Chris Coons, Marco Rubio, Jerry Moran and Mark Warner to bring policy changes to stoke America’s entrepreneurial sparks: Through improved access to capital; tax policies that encourage innovation in young companies as well as more established ones; and institutionalizing a process for identifying new policies that harm entrepreneurship.

Roughly 45 percent of Silicon Valley startups are founded by foreign-born entrepreneurs. And these small businesses, as small business have always done, provide the most jobs. Working together, with Congress and the Administration, we can reform our immigration policies to grow our economy and jobs.

Abuse of a Great Environmental Law

By Shiloh Ballard, Vice President

In Governor Brown’s recent State of the State address he called for streamlining regulatory procedures and standards, especially ones connected to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). He stated, “Our approach needs to be based more on consistent standards that provide greater certainty and cut needless delays.”

As Co-Chair of a statewide CEQA modernization coalition, we‘ve gathered case studies that demonstrate how CEQA, a great environmental law, has been misused to block important housing, transportation and job-producing businesses and projects for non-environmental purposes.

For example, several infill housing proposals near the new Milpitas BART station were systematically challenged by the carpenter’s union. In East San Jose, a gas station expansion was held up by a competitor across the street. And, in Los Gatos, residents concerned about the town’s “character” have successfully stalled the expansion of Netflix, even though the project site is an existing office campus backed up against the freeway.

The law firm Holland and Knight, which specializes in CEQA cases for both public agencies and private entities, recently reviewed all 95 published CEQA-related lawsuits decided by the California Court of Appeal or Supreme Court over the past 15 years. The intent of the review was to determine which types of projects are most often the target of CEQA lawsuits.

Among the key findings of the analysis:

• CEQA litigation is aimed more often at infill than greenfield projects. Nearly 60 percent of the projects sued were infill, often transit-oriented developments.
• Nearly four in ten of the projects were public agency projects like schools, hospitals, roads and universities.
• The most commonly-challenged types of projects are public infrastructure (19%).
• CEQA litigation is mostly about non-polluting projects.  Fewer than 11% of these cases involve industrial projects.
• CEQA litigation shelters anonymous interests:  The vast majority of cases – 73% were filed by local organizations. Forty three percent (43%) of the local organizations are unincorporated associations, which do not need to disclose their members when filing CEQA lawsuits.

Updating the state’s landmark environmental law is a key component of our 2013 work plan and we were thrilled to hear the Governor’s recent comments. We’ll continue to work closely with the Governor, our coalition and legislators like Senator Michael Rubio, Chair of the Senate Environment Quality Committee to modernize the state’s great environmental protection law to reduce its misuse. For more information, visit our CEQA Working Group website.