Sixteen years ago, I went to DC to tell Congress, (both Houses), that the skilled trades were in desperate need of reinvigorating, and that America’s skills gap was on the road to becoming a national emergency. I had launched mikeroweWORKS two years earlier and wanted to make sure our elected officials knew that I was willing to work with the Obama administration – or any administration, for that matter – to help train the next generation of skilled workers. Toward that end, I shared my belief that America needed a robust campaign to encourage a new generation of kids to explore careers in the skilled trades, and that the government had an important role to play in that effort.
My testimony was met with a level of enthusiasm that I found encouraging. Representatives on both sides of the aisle reached out to thank me for coming. They all acknowledged the problem, agreed with my solution, and invited me to collaborate, brainstorm, and join forces to help them close America’s skills gap. Then, after a few dozen seminars, symposiums, colloquiums, round tables, factory tours, ribbon cuttings, and various other photo ops, I eventually realized that most of the elected officials who had reached out were less interested in closing the skills gap and more interested in getting reelected. Which is why I didn’t return the calls of this week’s guest when he reached out last year to see if I might consider working with the Pentagon to make the skilled trades cool again.
In my defense, Michael Cadenazzi had not yet been confirmed when he reached out. He’d only been nominated to serve as the Assistant Secretary of War for Industrial Base Policy, but when the Senate finally did confirm him, he reached out again and asked if we could meet in DC. Then, when I googled him to see what he actually did, I went to the Pentagon to say hello.
Today, Mike Cadenazzi is the principal advisor to the Under Secretary of War. His primary job is to develop and maintain the Defense Industrial Base (DIB) to ensure a secure supply of materials critical to our national security. He’s also in charge of the current workforce within the military industrial base and determined to do something about the appalling shortage of skilled workers we now face. Which is why he called me in the first place, and why we’ve been talking seriously for several months about the skilled trades campaign I proposed sixteen years ago.
Obviously, I don’t have a crystal ball, and don’t yet know exactly what will come of our meetings. But I’m hopeful. In the last sixteen years, few people in the federal government have impressed me to this degree. Mike spent ten years as an active-duty U.S. Navy cryptologic warfare officer before entering the private sector, where he launched several successful companies in the aerospace & defense industries. In other words, he walked away from a pretty great career to tackle this enormous problem. He’s the opposite of a bureaucrat, and I’m flattered that he thinks mikeroweWORKS might be a worthy partner.
Here then, with no further ado, is a man accustomed to getting shit done. I think you’re gonna like him.
Our whole conversation is here. https://bit.ly/TWIHI476MichaelCadenazzi
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