The Fedtrade® podcast recently interviewed Anders Victor, Director of Business Development for the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina (EDPNC), as part of our SelectUSA Investment Summit Spotlight series. EDPNC improves the economic well-being and quality of life for all North Carolinians by recruiting new businesses to the state, supporting existing employers, assisting companies with international trade, counseling small business and startups, and promoting North Carolina as a tourism destination. Members of EDPNC will be attending the 2025 SelectUSA Investment Summit in National Harbor, Maryland, from May 11-14, 2025.
Learn more about EDPNC on their website or follow them on LinkedIn. Connect with Anders on LinkedIn.
Key Takeaways
- EDPNC is a public-private partnership focused on economic development.
- North Carolina’s legacy sectors of textile, furniture, and food and agriculture still exist at great scale and accompany life sciences, tech, financial services, and aerospace as strong sectors in the state.
- The state’s geography and workforce make it an attractive business location.
- Startups often struggle with understanding the U.S. market landscape, especially where to start.
- EDPNC provides support in navigating incentives and programs.
Listen to full podcast here.
[a copy of the written transcript is here]:
Hello, welcome to Fedtrade®. I’m James Hastings of Rothwell Figg. Joining us today is Anders Victor, Director of Business Development of the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina, EDPNC. Anders will be sharing the benefits of establishing a business in North Carolina, its incentives and programs, and what makes North Carolina a preferred business destination for foreign direct investors seeking to go to market in the United States.
Anders, welcome to Fedtrade®.
Thank you so much, James, and many greetings to you and all of the listeners from sunny North Carolina.
Great. Anders, what is EDPNC?
Good question. Other than a very attractive acronym, it is essentially the state’s public-private partnership for economic development, which can mean a lot of different things in a lot of different states. Here in North Carolina, it means we’re basically the group that is looking to basically improve the life of all North Carolinians by attracting new businesses, supporting our existing employers, assisting some of our companies with things like exports and international trade, and counseling small businesses. I think the most fun and interesting part of the entire organization is also the tourism and promotion, film promotion agency for the state. So a lot of different things. We’re a group of about 60 people based here in our state’s capital in Raleigh. And we work very closely with our state’s department of commerce and our general assembly and have many partners across the state to execute that vision.
What types of companies or entities does EDPNC serve?
It’s all types of different companies from a scale standpoint. I think we are most typically working with the larger companies, those that are employing people. It could be a multinational company, it could be a company that’s just based here in the state looking to grow. From a programmatic standpoint, we are known as being the business recruitment entity. So those are the bigger announcements. Those are the ones that have ribbon cuttings and the groundbreakings. But really from a numerical standpoint, our team here at the EDPNC works every day with companies looking to just get their business license or looking to break into a new market. Those are things that my colleagues work on more than I do. I’m more on the business attraction side, but we really have the bandwidth and it runs the full gamut of every type of company that our team can support.
International businesses have many options to locate when going to market in the United States. What are some of the reasons for North Carolina?
Well, there are a lot and I think you’re going to hear that from all of my peers and our competitors across the country. And I think every state has a claim to be the right place for a lot of different kinds of businesses. I think our combination of the things we can control and the things we can’t control but that are beneficial really add up to be a really unique place to do business. So I’ll start with the things that are kind of more in a camp of those factors we can’t control – geography. Right in the middle of the U.S. East Coast, we are in the Eastern time zone and for companies in Europe that’s extremely beneficial. We have a variety of types of sites because of the geography across our state. So we have ocean served sites that have ocean channel depths of 30 to 35 feet. We have two state operated ports. And then we have facilities and sites way out in the mountains that can accommodate things like indoor agriculture in a way that the elevation and the degree of the slope is really beneficial to those companies. And then right in the middle of the state, the Piedmont, which is where we’ve seen some companies like Toyota and Nova Nordisk make recent multi-billion dollar investments. There’s a tremendous amount of power capacity in water because of the geography that the state affords itself there. And then there’s the things we can control, things like policy. The state’s committed to a workforce development strategy over the course of decades. That has seen the state turn into one of the most trusted places. If you’re a manufacturer, you’re going to look to a place like North Carolina, which has the largest manufacturing workforce in the Southeast. If you’re a tech company, you’re going to look to North Carolina, which is the third fastest net population growth in the country. And within that category, our largest group of people coming to the state are those people who are in the 25 to 34 age range. These are the people that could choose to live anywhere. They’re choosing to move to North Carolina and start their family and careers here. So I think those are the two big things, you know, the intangibles and the things that we’ve specifically identified as important to our policymakers.
You had mentioned tech companies. Are there any other sectors for which North Carolina is known for to attract foreign direct investors seeking to go to market in the United States?
Absolutely. Tech and financial services are things that places like Charlotte, North Carolina are really well accustomed to attracting. Within tech, the enterprise solutions category is its own sector itself. And when you think about Charlotte, it’s the second largest financial hub in the U.S., only behind New York. It’s home to Bank of America and Truist, two of the five largest banks in the country. Within that, there’s an incredible amount of enterprise solutions that need to happen. And so I haven’t got outside of tech and I’m still focused on that. But moving on to the broader state’s history and kind of how we’ve always competed. The state is historically known for being a really innovative textile community. We are known historically as being the capital of furniture in United States. The tobacco sector has morphed into a very productive food and agricultural services sector. So those are three legacy sectors that still do exist at great scale and great productivity in the state. I think in the past maybe 30 or 40 years, very intentional efforts to become a life science center has resulted in, I think, one of most impressive strings of success in life science announcements anywhere in the world over the past several years. The state has always been the aerospace hub, if not for the East Coast, maybe for the entire country. Obviously the first flight happened in North Carolina and we still see a tremendous amount of commercial aviation success from propulsion with Pratt & Whitney and GE Aerospace having very significant engine manufacturing supply chains here in the state to material sciences companies like ATI in the Charlotte area and Spirit AeroSystems in the eastern part of our state in Kinston, North Carolina, as well as companies like Honeywell and Collins Aerospace having their headquarters in Charlotte. It all kind of adds up to a very impressive commercial aviation sector. So I’ve named a lot of different sectors and I think that’s part of North Carolina’s story. It’s a big state geographically, home to more than 10 million people. We have an economy that’s roughly the same size of Switzerland, so we’re going to have a tremendous amount of industrial diversity within.
What common challenges do startups or established companies have in seeking to go to market in the United States?
The biggest thing is just knowing where to start. I think the most common request we get from companies that are considering the state is they need to understand what the landscape is. So I think our research team can certainly attest to my weekly, if not daily, requests to just generate things like business lists. We need to know who our competition is. We need to know where our potential sales are. Those are little things. Those are easy things for an economic development team to answer, easy questions that we can address. But it really matters for a company that is maybe coming to the U.S. for the first time to just know that they can ask a group like EDPNC and many of our peers across the state those types of questions that we might take for granted. So I always tell startups and companies that are looking to scale, just send me your shopping list of needs and wants and it will be very transparent with you of the things we think we can help with. More often than not, we can’t help you with direct introductions and we can’t help you with the things that are really going to help you go from point A to point B on a specific sale. But we can maybe help you with some business intelligence. We can tell our story. We can invite you to things. We can keep you in mind so that when you’re visiting, you know that we can help with the agenda, we can help put you in touch with people in our network. Don’t think that anything is too silly to put on that shopping list.
Many of the sectors that you had discussed, particularly high tech sectors, are intensive with federal regulatory compliance and other legal issues, including intellectual property. How important do you find these areas for international companies to address?
It’s a really important topic. I mean, the intellectual property considerations that go into your U.S. growth plan and your U.S. go-to-market strategy are probably not something that every industry sector approaches at the same time. It’s never too early to start thinking about those types of things. I think one of the benefits of being structured the way we are as a partnership is we have a significant degree of experts within the tent, so to speak. Whether they’re law firms or others who can help companies navigate these types of questions, very specific to their industry. They can help find university research partners and align federal grant making such that you’ll have a built-in partner while maintaining your IP and intellectual property, but you can have a little bit of a slower ramp to market. But, you know, it is really important and just kind of depends on the industry sector.
What types of programs does EDPNC provide to companies that are seeking to go to market in the United States?
So I would say think more traditional economic development site location and site readiness work. Our team of business developers and business recruitment managers are really kind of, I think a lot of companies would characterize us as generally like Sherpas. We’re here to help throughout the process. We want to help companies start thinking about questions they might not think about asking, start answering questions that they do have, doing the heavy lifting on things like planning a site visit, and working with our state’s Department of Commerce to understand what potential incentives might be available. Also, working with our local economic development teams to make sure that there is water and wastewater available to that site, or connecting with our electric utility partners to see how long a substation would take to be built that could serve this client. These are things that there’s no market person other than a true site selector who’s ready to take that on at the state level. So our team’s real benefit and the real service that we provide is being that conduit between a business who’s looking to make that decision – could be working with their site selector as well – and some of these really complicated project management elements that go into selecting a site.
Does EDPNC offer incentives or at least educate international companies on incentives that may be available to them?
Yeah, absolutely. More in that second category. We’re, from a programmatic standpoint, really focused on helping connect the dots with those programs across the state that are available to companies. Our biggest discretionary pool of funding is typically run through our state’s Department of Commerce. And within that, there are several different levers that they pull. There are additional funding programs at the local level typically, and kind of the additional layer. I think probably the most important thing that differentiates North Carolina from other states is the extremely productive workforce solutions and customized training programs that exist across the state. So those are the three big levers in our team’s job is to help a company navigate the best time to start making those requests and work through that process.
EDPNC will be attending the SelectUSA Investment Summit taking place this May at National Harbor, Maryland. What are some of the benefits of attending?
Well, other than joining us and the economic development team from North Carolina at the Ferris wheel on Tuesday night, I think there are some really important sessions that the U.S. Department of Commerce organizes. I think it’s easy enough as an economic developer to say you can walk the floor and talk to all 50 states, which is true. But there are an impressive amount of programs. I think it’s mostly on Sunday and certainly throughout the day on Monday and Tuesday. Things like how to approach an incentive conversation in the U.S., coaching some of these companies on how to approach a law firm if you have specific questions on IP. I think that the things that we might take for granted from an economic developer standpoint are typically some of the more helpful considerations for a company that’s considering going to SelectUSA.
There are indeed 50 economic state development organizations there. There are regional economic development organizations who are in attendance, and even those who represent cities. It sometimes can get overwhelming for attendees. Is there any sort of niche advice you have for attendees regarding either their particular company or how to navigate the floor?
Yes, I would say it is overwhelming if you’re going to walk the floor, it’s overwhelming to walk up to 50 different booths, more than 50 different booths. I think to the degree that it’s possible to take advantage of the meeting portal, you should. I know that I lean quite heavily on that when I’m planning out my day to see what meetings exist in the meeting portal. Because the fact of it is, if there’s no available time to meet with states, then it’s going to be hard to have those conversations. But if you do put yourself in, I can’t think of any state in this country that would turn out a meeting with a company that requests it. So I would say take advantage of the meeting portal. Also, and I don’t know if it’s the case for every single country, but it’s more often the case than not that whether you’re coming from Italy or India or Brazil, you’re going to have a commercial service lead from the U.S. Commercial Service that’s kind of your coordinator for the delegation. And they’re going to have a lot of good connections. So work with them as well. I would say reach out to them and express interest in certain states. There’s a good chance that those people have relationships, whether it’s EDPNC or any of our peers across the country. And they can help you navigate, you know, whether it’s the right time to go over to their booth, whether they know that there’s a reception that that state is having that day. They’re going to be a very helpful clearinghouse for whatever respective delegation a company is coming from.
Can you share any success stories of working with startups or established companies, either as a result of SelectUSA or other means of those who are coming internationally into North Carolina?
Yeah, I would say there are examples of startups that we’ve worked with. There’s a company, there’s a Belgian company that we actually met at SelectUSA several years ago at the Summit. Their name is Spotit and you know, the conversation advanced and we kept in touch and eventually we were delighted to work with them on their expansion to North Carolina. So there are some examples of that. And I think there are also examples of the importance of just connecting with some of the larger, more established companies who might even already have a presence in your state. It’s sometimes odd that you have to go all the way out of the state or meet in a neutral location to have these conversations. But we also take it very seriously to meet with some of our existing employers who are there. Companies who have already employed North Carolinians who we know are there talking with other states as well. And we don’t want to discount the importance of working with our existing companies either. So we’ll also prioritize those conversations as well.
Where is the best place for companies to get more information on your organization?
Well, I think, and I’m not just saying this as the business development person who benefits from our incredibly productive marketing team, but I think that our website is a really incredible resource. But there’s always the people element too. And as a team, we’re very small, we’re real people. You can always reach out to somebody like myself or any of my colleagues on the business development team. And there is no conversation too small. There’s no project too small. There’s no question too crazy to ask us. We will have every conversation with a company that wants to talk about doing business in North Carolina.
Anders Victor, Director of Business Development of the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina. Thanks for joining us.
Thank you so much.
