Building a ‘Yes, And’ Economy with Louisiana Economic Development Secretary Susan Bourgeois

Olivia Dunning: Madam Speaker! Madam Secretary, Madam Vice President. This is Madam Policy, a podcast about women shaping policy, creating history. Welcome everyone to Madam Policy. I am your host, Dee Martin. I'm joined today by good friend co-host Brooke Walters. Brooke Walters is government affairs advisor at Erlaquy. Good morning, Brooke. Good morning, Dee. I'm so excited to be here. Well, you should be, because we have a very exciting guest today. Secretary Susan Bourgeois is here with us. She is Secretary of Louisiana Economic Development. She's leading Louisiana right now through an historic period of growth, investment, and opportunity. And listen to this. Under her leadership, LED has secured more than 250 billion in announced capital investment since 2024. And that includes landmark commitments. We're going to get into these. From SpaceX, Meta, Hyundai Steel, Woodside Energy, and Amazon Web Services. It's just amazing. Louisiana has also become the first state in the nation to earn back-to-back business facilities platinum deal of the year awards and has risen into area development's top 10 states for doing business. Welcome, Secretary Bourgeois. Thank you and good morning. I appreciate you or you giving us the opportunity to have this time together. we're excited. The the appreciation comes from us for you spending some time with us. So we're just gonna go ahead and jump right in. Madam Secretary, you lead LED, which is the cabinet level agency charged with strengthening the state's business environment and creating economic opportunity. I wanna just start with what is really an enormous and complex portfolio. What's your North Star? Like what guides you every day? You know, it's it's really pretty simple, actually, and that is for Really almost thirty years, Louisiana had had seen the slowest GDP growth in the in the nation. We had seen a loss in population. And you know, I'm a native Louisiana. I was born and raised here, spent a little time in Washington, DC, but we don't like to claim that. And at the end of the day, the North Star is reversing that trajectory and making sure that our our kids and our grandkids and our citizens today have the opportunity for the lifestyle they deserve and choose here in Louisiana. Well, that that is great. And I'll tell you, just yesterday I was on Capitol Hill in Washington DC with one of the members of your federal delegation and we were just talking about the enormous growth in Louisiana right now. Now I did tell him and I will tell you also that I'm originally from Arkansas. So I consider myself Louisiana adjacent. And oftentimes that is where we would go for fun. Just so you know. You're north north Louisiana. That's right. We're north north Louisiana. Exactly. Exactly. All right, well let's jump into SpaceX. First, congratulations. Thank you. you just announced that it's investing 100 billion. That's 100 billion with a B, to build its largest launch facility in Vermilion Parish. So congratulations on that. Yes, thank you. Thank you. And I understand that the story starts with a phone call in February. And then like just a little bit over six months later, the project is announced. How do you go from The phone ringing and there being interest to closing on or announcing something of that magnitude. Well, I think there's the practical answer to that, which I'm happy to tell you, but there's also the philosophical answer to that, which is this administration, you know, Governor Landry told us on day one, everyone in his cabinet, there was a sense of urgency to change Louisiana's outcomes. So we've done everything with that same sense of urgency. And it's it's a good thing that we do because when you you get to engage with a company. like SpaceX, any Elon Musk company, frankly, with that sense of urgency. So so philosophically it's how we do everything. But practically, we got the phone call on the Thursday before Mardi Gras. And for anyone who has any Louisiana experience, you understand that that is really rolling into a a dead week, not a not an on week. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well it's an on week but in different ways. That's exactly very good point T. Yeah. Yeah. So the phone call on Thursday was simply that some senior level executives with the company needed to have a Zoom with with me as secretary and and Paige Carter, our chief business development officer, the next day. And I thought, the Friday before Mardi Gras, these people are either unaware of Louisiana or really in a hurry. So we did it. We did it. And I'm and I'm very glad we did because that started the the timer, if you will, on a project that ended up being incredibly complex and as we all know from every word that's been used to describe what they're going to do here, transformational not only for Louisiana, but ultimately for the world and and and the solar system potentially. So yeah, six and a half months time from that first call to ink dried, paperwork signed and announcement. I mean, congratulations. That is amazing. That has to go down as not only an enormous deal, but one of the fastest deals in history. So congratulations on that. For us, absolutely. Now, if I can jump in here, just you mentioned Paige Carter, and I have had the privilege of working with you and your team in various aspects of Airlocked investing in Louisiana and our major footprint of production in Louisiana. And my question really is so you you talk about this being a team effort, and I really would like to hear more about like you've built this incredible team around you to really support your initiative. Can you tell us more about how you envision your team and executed building it out to make all of these huge successful investments happen? So when when the governor asked me to take this job, it was really all based on the premise that we were going to be blowing up any system inside of state government that wasn't producing the outcomes we thought Louisiana deserved. And so what I asked for from day one from him was the ability to to build a team that I thought could accomplish that. But simultaneously, we actually had to make some statutory changes to how a state agency functions differently. So the great news is that The legislature overwhelmingly approved that effort, and we were simultaneously able to go out and find some of the most talented people in Louisiana in the verticals that they represent inside of our department. Some of them had worked at LED in the past in a more junior role. Some of them came purely from the private sector or other economic development agencies, but we identified the four or five verticals that we knew were going to drive the ultimate success of the department and therefore Louisiana. And we went and found. the best of the best to lead those verticals. And I will say, while I get to make all the announcements and, you know, I love that I get to be the one to do this. And I love having these kinds of dialogues and conversations. This team that we have assembled at a at a state agency is I I would go to war with them any day I do. And I wouldn't want anybody else with me to do it. And so the that 200 and almost 60 billion now D and all the success, it's because of the entirety of the team. I I will just say I'm an Aggie. So I've been spending a lot of time in Baton Rouge. And I will say I have met some of the greatest folks on your team and just in general of building out that that ecosystem for companies like Airlocky to be able to jump in and have connections and being able to talk to people. So that's been super valuable. So it's it's really encouraging to hear how you built out that team. We we definitely appreciate how attention to detail you've been with developing folks that are going to push for investment. And that is that's super incredible. But we have a game coming up, LSU versus A and I don't know when this podcast will be posted, but hopefully it'll come out to be a good outcome for A and But if not, I will be in Baton Rouge to to at least celebrate either way. Well, I'll how about I find you there and we'll have a follow-up to this discussion on game day, right? And that was when the podcast ended. The secretary left. So there we have it. I'll let you two battle this out in Louisiana. All right. Listen, I want to pivot to the beginning of when you became secretary. One of the first things that you did was, and I think is a quote, to get out of Baton Rouge and to go around the state and listen to everyone and listen to what the needs were. I have a particular affinity for that because when young women ask me for career advice, one of the things that I always say is listen. Always really listen to the people with whom you're working and then restate what it is that you think you've heard. You can confirm that you're on the same page and and you're also can then be thinking about what is the strategy or what is the next step, but always be listening. So how did you go about your listening tour? And when you were on that listening tour, what did you hear? from people across Louisiana that changed or shaped your policy priorities? Yeah, I I think we boiled it down. you know, I have I'm a bit of a organizational development nerd, right? And those are the kinds of things that really interest me. So when I first came into the organization, it was not just figuring out what was happening internal to the state agency, but it was also what was happening reputationally as how people thought about us, how people valued our work. So we identified three really core constituencies, if you will. To who we needed to talk to. Practically, again, first and foremost, quite honestly, the Louisiana state legislature are the ones that fund our work. They are the ones that set the statute force. So so we listened to them. And it's interesting. We heard the same thing from them as we heard from our locals. And then also the so that our locals were the second constituency and the third constituency, and most important were our existing Louisiana businesses, who was already there, who had already right invested, who had already taken the bet. How could we serve them? And what we heard over and over again was twofold. Number one, please don't sit in Baton Rouge and tell us what's best for us. Right. Make sure, make sure that you understand that just like politics, all economic development is local first, that we have assets, we have strengths, we have risks, we have nuances to our communities, and we want you to work in our communities first and bubble up a strategy from there. And then secondly, it's the it's the communication, the the departments. And I think all things economic development for a long time had had developed this sort of shroud of mystery, you know, like it everything had to be a secret. And in fact, of course, we have confidential processes that have to happen to make deals work. But beyond that, nothing had to be a secret and nothing should be a secret. So two things. We focused on the locals and we started communicating openly. And I think that went a very long way in building trust. And and a narrative for both the department and then ultimately the state that is part of the success that we're seeing now. As Airlakita, we like to pride ourselves as the invisible backbone of industry. And when we evaluate different opportunities or locations for new investments, I think what is really important is certainty from the state and its folks to make sure that we are contributing to all of the different factors that you're looking at, as well as from a business standpoint, that it has a good return for us. And with that, I mean, you mention the Louisiana legislature, the locals, and then the businesses. And when it comes to factoring all of those in. How do you take a company that is saying we're really interested in Louisiana? How do you take that interest and turn it into a yes and bring them in to Louisiana? I know for Mary Laquita, I can speak that we are in Louisiana. So the yes has been fairly simple. But I I would like to hear more about for other companies. I mean, you mentioned these massive investments that previously didn't have a footprint in Louisiana. So if you could just tell us more about that. Yeah, absolutely. I think again, there's a philosophical piece and then there's a practical piece. The philosophical piece, and I say it in every time I speak to the legislature, what companies like Erlich and many, many, many others, I believe, are looking for first or the most important factors, right? It's real simple: time, risk, and money. Yep. That that's what matters to the private sector and to the decisions you make as a company and everyone else makes as a company. So everything we do inside the department and inside state government continually. has to take into consideration that your perspective is time, risk, and money. So that's the conceptual side. The practical application of that is what we have sort of dubbed our our whole of government approach to economic development. And that is that to make projects like any of that the ones we've announced successful, it can't be one state agency, Louisiana Economic Development Act, operating in a vacuum, working a deal, and then handing off To someone else. We work on day one now. this cabinet does together, as well as other, you know, constitutionally created political bodies in Louisiana, the Public Service Commission, the legislature, everyone is alongside of us literally on day one on these projects. We have we have a strike force, it's it's called a the project Lightning Speed. So when a project comes to Louisiana and says we're interested, here's what we want, we bring every regulator, every touching entity to the table on day one to work the project with us so that when we announce, when we get to that point, pre-application meetings have already taken place for permits. Our environmental, right, DEQ has already put in their line of sight what they will need and when our workforce commission is already looking at what the workforce needs will be. So th this whole of government approach really has become our And frankly, we've expanded it to a whole of Louisiana approach because we use the locals in the private sector just as much as we use government. And that is the secret sauce. You know, the brilliant consultants at McKinsey, quite honestly, told us if we could formalize that, which we've now done, it would be a competitive advantage. And we're seeing the results of that. I mean, from our side, we're we're experiencing it. And you mentioned the project Lightning Speed, the objective of the whole of government, whole of Louisiana approach. Now we've also had the benefit of you utilizing Source Louisiana, which is another amazing program that has benefited both businesses that are investing, making sure that we we are in that community and bringing in suppliers and that are local and really advancing where we want to go with our investments. Now, when it comes to, I know we spoke a little bit earlier about your team. And I have to give a quick shout out to Jacob Ellis because he he gets a lot of my emails and phone calls. and he he has been great. And one thing that I I really find valuable is the personal touch that your team and extended team to the other departments as well. Of I can I have an opportunity to give a call to someone and they will answer and It's a real person that will give me direction on what we are looking for. And I think that that is really valuable. And when you are setting up your team, is that something that you wanted to implement of having a point of contact for companies that they can talk to a real person whenever they have issues or something arises that is valuable that they need to talk to? Yeah, absolutely. It's not just the point of contact. It is so that's sort of more internal structure. It's also philosophically that we want to be an agency and ultimately an entire government that makes it easy for you to succeed. You know, you being any company, Erla Keyed and many, many others, obviously. Because when you're successful in Louisiana, Louisiana's successful. So we we we turned the organization into what I call a yes and organization. You know, we won't always be able to do everything exactly the way. you know, you or or other folks need, but we will always work to find the best solution to do that. And and that ease of use commitment that we have, I think is showing in all of our programs and our incentives and frankly just in the way our team operates. So that's the big piece. But but to your point about picking up a phone and talking to a person and getting an answer, that's also a structural piece, right? That that companies need some consistency in the people that they deal with and in the expectations because what What had happened before is that we'd announce a project and then that project manager, if you will, would sort of move on to getting the next project instead of the fulfillment side of our commitments and our work. And that was a a clunky and perhaps not always successful methodology. And so we we have a real commitment to knowing that the fulfillment after the announcement is frankly far more critical to the success of the project than. getting to the announcement. And so that that's how that's how we work everything that we do. I want to pivot for just a minute to another major investment sector in Louisiana, which is investment in data centers. And, you know, we're seeing that the, you know, just the growth of data center investment across the United States. We've seen other states wrestle maybe with some of the challenges that can accompany those projects, projects of that scale. So when you're thinking of data centers, how do you evaluate the demands on power, water, infrastructure workforce, which I know is something is that's really important to you and to the governor against the jobs, investment, and longer term economic benefits. Now, from my perspective, it may not be fair to bifurcate them in that way because I think they all work together. But but how do you evaluate those projects? They do all work together, G. It's a great point. And you know, we've got in in Incredibly lucky, you know, there's always a silver lining to every cloud. Louisiana was really late to the data center game, right? Which three years ago might have felt like a problem and today feels like a real privilege. Because what it allowed us to do is that Meta, right? The massive meta announcement and investment happened to be our first one. We we cut our teeth on Meta. And when you when you cut your teeth on a project with a company of that size and scale. Who had had so much experience in other states and frankly other countries doing this kind of thing. The deal we worked with Meta, that upfront, before we were talking about this on a national stage, everything you just laid out was a consideration and a and a element of the deal itself, from protection of natural resources and from consumer protection and making sure that the company paid for its generation and more, grid resiliency and upgrades. Local community impact, all of those things were factored into the meta deal, right? The $50 billion Meta deal. What that allowed us to do is create a prototype we didn't realize we were creating at the time, but we've now spun that off into a framework under which all data center conversations we have have seven elements that have to be addressed before we will. Frankly, before we will give the data center sales tax exemption, which is a pretty critical element to any any major data center investment. So we were able to take the learnings from our Meta deal, the success we had in that regard. And and I I think a lot of people have heard about it, but I can't say it enough. You know, the the Richland Parish, which is where Meta located, was is a a rural parish, primarily agricultural in nature. The average wage in Richland Parish before that announcement was around thirty-six, thirty-eight thousand dollars a year. And it had seen a loss of population and a loss of economic investment for years and years and years. The meta investment, the average wage of the meta jobs is somewhere around eighty-five, ninety thousand dollars a year. Wow. Sales tax collection increase has led to in year one of the construction of the project, they're not even operational yet. Every teacher in Richland Parish got a fifty thousand dollar bonus. Bonus, not salary. Bonus. That's incredible. That's fantastic. Because of the sales tax increase in their first full year of construction. And you know, I I I did an interview with a national reporter. I won't sell them out, but he he f it was almost condescending in his question when he said All of this for the original number was 500 jobs. It's now a thousand jobs, by the way, permanent jobs. He said, All of this for 500 jobs, is it really worth it? And we were on the site when he said that. And I I said with all due respect, there's not a place in Louisiana that you're gonna hear somebody say only five hundred jobs, right? Yeah. Paying ninety and ninety-five thousand dollars a year with health benefits, right? With private health insurance, with retirement benefits. That maybe that's a luxury other states have. I'm not sure. But I will tell you that is not a conversation Louisiana has. And so now those five hundred permanent jobs have become a thousand permanent jobs. Five years worth of construction jobs have become ten years worth of construction jobs. Teachers in Richland Parish are now some of the highest paid teachers in this state. I I'll take those kinds of projects all day long. Right. And I'll okay. I realize I'm not in that interview and it's not my job, but say this. I I mean I first of all I think that was an out of touch question, right? I think that was an out of touch response from the reporter. I also don't know who it was. But also that doesn't even count like you have the 500, the thousand, and the long term that doesn't even count all of the ancillary job growth when a project like that comes to an area. I I feel like that was very short-sighted. I agree. And I but you know what I think it is more indicative of a more national narrative around data centers. That frankly does not match the Louisiana narrative around data centers. Because we have after Richland Parish announced that teacher race, I can't tell you how many leaders of other parishes in Louisiana called our office and said, Do y'all have any looking here? Can you help us get one here? That's very different than the national dialogue. One would think is happening with the national dialogue. Well, congratulations on that. And sounds I You don't need my help answering any questions on that. So I'm glad. So, you know, first of all, I have to say I feel this connection to you because you've said all the things that I love, right? You have a framework, there's a template, there's a checklist, you're an organizational nerd. And I feel like when you're dealing with a multitude of projects or tasks of the magnitude with which you are contending, you have to have that level of organization. There's no question there. I just wanted to say thank you. You've affirmed my approach to life and I appreciate that. Well, thank you. Kindred spirits. Thank you for the experience. Yes. All right. We just have two more questions for you. And these are more on the personal note. I'm gonna ask Brooke to go first and then I'm gonna close this out. Brooke, go ahead. Yes. so I have had the pleasure of interacting with you this past year in many different facets, venues, and really seeing you be such a strong leader of your department as well as just the community that you represent. And I'm 31 years old and I would love to learn and build my own confidence. But when you walk into a room, I mean you own it. Like you go in with such confidence. And as someone who is still trying to develop my leadership skills, I would, I would love to know Where does that come from from you or what what did you work on to hone in on that strong presence that you bring to the table? Gosh. well, thank you, because that's an incredibly flattering question. But we could have talked the whole time about this because there are a lot of answers to that question. the first thing I will tell you is being authentic and and so in that authenticity I will lead with, I haven't always been this way. Right. I was a I was a different person. I've always had some level of comfort in a room, in a crowd. In I I think there are some qualities of leadership that are inherent. Some can be learned, but some also I I I I believe I was born with a few of them and I've developed a lot more. So but there is a a tremendous benefit that comes with age, not from a years perspective, age from an experience perspective. That develops your own confidence level and comfort in your own skin. But but the other thing I will say again, very authentically, is when I first was in the discussion about this job, I had this huge bout of imposter syndrome. I, you know, I battled with what makes me think I can do this, right? Those weren't words that I said out loud to many people other than maybe my husband and my sister. But I said, what what makes me think that I can do this? And and finally I just went, I I I can't I know can do this. Right. This is at the end of the day, again, organizational development, frameworks, all it's relational, it's formulaic in many respects. It's authenticity builds into that. And so the biggest advice I could give Brooke to you and and by the way, from your appearance, I would have always said you were 31, but from your presence in your professionalism, I would have said you have a lot more years of that experience. So good for you. Thank you. Is trusting your voice. You know, tr just trust your own voice. Because I think I don't maybe it's women, maybe it's young women. I don't know. I battled it. You might battle it sometimes too. But first and foremost, trust your own voice. W you you are in the seat that you're in and you're in the role that you're in. And I say this to the whole audience because of the skills and the experience you have wherever you fit on that spectrum. And and trust that. And the more you lead with it, the more it works, the more it works, the more you feel it, the more you embody it. And then I'll tell you another little secret about owning a room. And I got this great advice from another political friend of mine who happens to have a background in in journalism and a media presence. She said she learned a tip early on, and it's called extreme posture, right? That before you go in a room or before a camera turns on, you stand or sit. Look, I'm fixing it now. In a way. I do. I mean I'm telling all I'm telling all our secrets. You stand or sit in a way that feels extreme to you. That's why it's called extreme posture. Okay. But in reality, it just gives you a presence that people notice. So extreme posture when you walk in a room, it's an amazing thing. Okay. That is so great. We have done over a hundred and fifty episodes of Madam Policy and that is the most practical advice to to have and to implement. Thank you for that. So Note, Madam Secretary, thank you so much for being here. Just one other we close every episode with, and you've given a lot of this already, but we close every episode with what advice would you give to your 24 year old self? A bit younger than me. So calling that out. my my 24 year old self would be be as bold on the outside as you want to be on the inside, right? Don't let the filter, don't let the filter between how you feel. you should be and how you what you believe you can do. Don't let a filter stifle that. Be as bold on the outside as you feel on the inside. Cause I felt it at 24. I just didn't act on it. Well, that is amazing advice. Every time I meet and talk with you, you get cooler and cooler. So thank you. And thank you so much for joining us today. Look, I'm still doing my extreme posture. Thank you so much for enjoying. I almost slunk and I was like, no. Thank you so much for being with us today. It was a real pleasure. Thank you for your time. Thank you all for having me. Thanks everyone for listening to Madam Policy. I think it's another great episode. Please download or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. And rate and review the show, which is really helpful to have other listeners find it. If you have someone that you think would be a great guest for Madam Policy, please send us their name. You can tweet at us, find us on Instagram, and contact us by the links in the bios. This podcast was recorded in the studios of Policy Bunga. Washington?