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Bishop-Wisecarver President Appointed to State Workforce Investment Board

Company News Thursday, August 30, 2012: Bishop-Wisecarver Corp

8/31/2012 UPDATE: KCBS radio has rescheduled Pamela Kan's interview to September 7th at 6:20 AM PST to coincide with the latest national jobless rate report scheduled to release that same morning at 8:30 AM EST from the the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

San Francisco Bay Area manufacturer featured as guest commentator on local radio to discuss the state of manufacturing and economic development in California

Pittsburg, CA -- Aug. 29, 2012 -- Bishop-Wisecarver Corporation® President Pamela Kan will appear on KCBS radio to discuss the state of California's workforce, the role of manufacturing in reviving the economy, and her recently announced appointment to Gov. Jerry Brown's California Workforce Investment Board (CWIB). The interview airs live at 9:20 a.m. Aug. 31 on San Francisco Bay Area stations 740 AM and 106.9 FM.

Kan is one of 30 appointed private sector leaders Brown described as "California's brightest business, labor and education leaders to help put Californians back to work." The board will team up with the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development to determine labor force needs and pave the way for businesses to obtain skilled workers and put jobless and underemployed Californians back to work. The board's role carries a lot of weight as California struggles with a 10.7 percent unemployment rate, according to the latest figures released in July by the state's Economic Development Department.

"Workforce development is key to the success of our state," Kan said. "It's important that we close the skills gap so that the manufacturing of today and tomorrow has workers with relevant abilities."

Brown was very deliberate in choosing who would sit on the board, said CWIB Executive Director Tim Rainey. Federal law requires 51 percent of the group's membership be from the private sector.

"The governor identified people who were not only leaders in their organizations, but respected leaders in their sectors," Rainey added.

As part of the state advisory board, Kan will influence public policy regarding economic development and job growth in California. She will help oversee the state's 49 local Workforce Investment Boards that allocate funds received through the federal Workforce Investment Act at a regional level. California sees about $400 million a year through the federal WIA, which distributes money to dislocated workers, the underemployed, at-risk youth and citizens who struggle to find work.

"California's economy is not a monolith, but several regional economies that compete globally," said Rainey. "The new state Workforce Investment Board will work to support emerging regional business-government partnerships focused on those sectors with the best potential for lots of good jobs."

The state WIB will direct the governor on how to target those federal dollars around regional growth industries and synch up California's economic development efforts with broader reform in education, training, employment support and other economic development efforts.

Kan joins the board with more than 20 years of business experience in manufacturing. She has held several positions at Bishop-Wisecarver since 1991, including as corporate programs director, assistant general manager and, for the past 12 years, president and CEO of the company her father Bud Wisecarver founded in 1950. Kan acquired controlling shares of the company in 2009.

Aside from her role on the governor's labor force advisory board, Kan holds leadership positions through several other organizations such as Seven Hills School Board since 2011, the National Association of Manufacturers Board of Directors since 2004, the Women Impacting Public Policy since 2010, the Industrial Association of Contra Costa County since 2007, the Women's President Organization since 2007, California Manufacturers and Technology Association since 2007 and Chair since 2012, the Power Transmission Distributor Association since 2004, and the High Technology Distributors since 2004.

Listen to the interview live from the KCBS website at http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com.

For more about the California Workforce Investment Board, go to www.cwib.ca.gov. To learn about Bishop-Wisecarver, follow real-time updates at Twitter.com/BWCnews or go to the company blog at bwcnews.blogspot.com.