Monday, December 14, 2009
Bill Aden: Role changes, smart growth and the future of Blacksburg
| Bill Aden, president and CEO of Draper Aden Associates in Blacksburg, will soon turn his position over to Jeffrey Lighthiser and move into the role of chairman of the board.
Aden has been involved in Blacksburg development and politics for years. We talked to him recently about his new role and where he sees the town headed in 2010.
Q: Why did you decide to step down as president of Draper Aden Associates?
A: That was something that has been planned, gosh, I’d say over 10 years now. It basically was something that we saw as being the way to perpetuate the firm. It comes under the heading of an ownership and leadership transition plan, and we’ve got that in place here and we’ve all agreed to it for years and we’ve just begun putting it into place.
Q: What’s next for you? How will your responsibilities change?
A: You know, I’m not retiring. I am essentially passing the torch of CEO and president over to another person … and my job is going to change more from a position of ultimate control to one of supporting the company in a lot of different ways.
I’ll be more involved in marketing of the firm. I’ll be more involved in legislative matters, helping us try to get money for our clients. I’m going to be doing some teaching — we’ve got an internal university that I’ll be involved in. I’m going to be doing a lot of different things. The whole idea is to keep the company going seamlessly. But I am not retiring — that needs to be emphasized.
Q: What are your thoughts on how to boost economic development both in Blacksburg and in the region?
A: I think that what we’ve got to do here in Blacksburg is we’ve got to create an environment in which economic development is welcomed, not discouraged. And in a lot of cases it’s not overtly discouraged, but the town of Blacksburg has got such a terrible reputation for regulation and stumbling blocks and delays and a lot of issues that frankly scare people. We’re fortunate, though, that we have a thriving populous here in Blacksburg that continues to attract people. But being in the kind of business we’re in, where we interact with economic developers that come in here … most of them say they’d never do it again.
We just don’t have the reputation of embracing economic development in the town, and I’m very hopeful that the new [town] council is going to recognize that and do some things that can change that attitude.
Q: What are the regional impacts of the “smart growth” and “sustainable growth” movements, and how is that affecting the economy and the construction/engineering industries?
A: As far as sustainable growth is concerned, I think that is such an overused term especially in Blacksburg and I think it’s very confusing. When you hear “sustainable growth” from one person and then you hear it from another, they are probably talking about different things. The classical definition of sustainable growth has to do with sustainable growth, sustainable economies, sustainable society, sustainable development. I mean, I don’t know that I have a complete understanding of what it means. Now in Blacksburg I feel like it’s defined as environmental sustainability, and that from a business point of view I think is certainly important.
But you also have to realize there are other types of sustainability that are important, too, like economic sustainability and bringing in economic development that will go on for years. And I think most people in Blacksburg are probably confused to the point they don’t even think about that — Blacksburg is very environmentally sensitive and that seems to drive a lot of decisions that are being made.
Now smart growth, I understand that a lot better and I agree with that. Smart growth doesn’t mean no growth, however. I think smart growth means planning growth in such a way that you utilize the existing infrastructure that you already have built to the max before you start going out and building new infrastructure. That’s difficult to do a lot of times, but it is something we should strive for. And here again I think Blacksburg particularly … and a lot of the officials of Blacksburg, don’t know the real definition of smart growth and sustainable growth. This town is going to grow and we’ve got to do it in a smart way but it’s also got to be economically sustainable.
Q: What industry do you think will be successful in 2010?
A: Certainly the high-tech industry. I mean the [Virginia Tech] Corporate Research Center has been a real jewel here, and it has spawned some really outstanding companies here in town and it continues to. I think that’s where the future lies here in Blacksburg and in Montgomery County.
The thing that we’ve got to do as a people here is make it attractive for these twenty-somethings. We have got to make it attractive for the twenty-somethings and the thirty-somethings to stay here, especially those who are single. Social life is not the greatest here but it’s getting better. I think the town has got to recognize that they need to make it attractive for young people to stay here.
And one other thing that I would love to see the town do is to somehow develop a program for attracting or recruiting young married couples, because if you are married and you had a young child or a couple of children, this is a wonderful place to raise the family. ... If we can find a young married couple in Washington, D.C., and recruit them here, they’d be happy as they could be and it would certainly be great for the community.
