Heading into a new year, new leaders are stepping up in the Sacramento region.
On Nov. 14 at Ella Dining Room & Bar, we hosted the latest in our quarterly series of dinners with new CEOs of Sacramento area companies and nonprofits. Our discussion that evening was off the record, but as is our usual practice, we circled back later with a series of questions on the record.
Here are the responses from California Mobility Center CEO Orville Thomas, edited for length and clarity.
Orville Thomas
CEO, California Mobility Center
What is your biggest challenge as a new CEO and how are you navigating it? I think my biggest challenge as a CEO is competing for oxygen and attention in a crowded space and in a 2024 election cycle. Talking about climate change or innovations that can help us with clean energy and clean transportation technology is sometimes very heavy, and people have more immediate concerns they want to focus on. So, I’m trying to break through the noise, break through the apathy and remind people why they have to care about our mission and what we are attempting to accomplish.
What’s your biggest goal or opportunity for 2024 for your organization? I have two biggest goals for 2024: one that is focused on the near-term and one that is focused on the long-term. For the near future, the hope is I can engage partners to do testing or pilot projects at the California Mobility Center. If we can do that, it shows proof of concept, which will help with my longer-term goal of securing funding for the construction of a new, larger facility.
How are you navigating the recent inflation in the economy and higher expenses in your business? I don’t know many people, if any, that would tell you it's OK. Partners are tightening their spending, limiting their donations and contributions and generally playing it more conservative. I’m selling that investing in people, innovation and opportunity is the way to help future-proof their businesses by building in better practices and bringing in new, more efficient technology and practices.
How are you navigating the tight labor market? It’s an opportunity for us to provide foundational training for green jobs. The California Mobility Center provides training that will result in our neighbors accessing higher paying jobs that provide upward mobility in an emerging industry. That’s a lot of industry talk to say that our training will give people opportunities to earn more money and grow with the technology.
What’s something you want others to know about you? I am an eternal optimist. It’s the key to my success and probably why I’ve been able to endure those down Kings years. I have a firm belief that my superpower is that I can rally the right people together and that together, we can come up with the solutions to some big problems.
