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Gov. Bev Perdue recently named Keith Crisco of Asheboro her commerce secretary. Before joining her administration earlier this month, Crisco was president of Asheboro Elastics, a company Crisco says has the mission of holding up your underwear. Crisco served as a White House fellow during the Nixon administration, testified before Congress on free-trade legislation and now finds himself as the state's chief job recruiter.
Staff writer Mark Binker asked Crisco about his life and how he can help bring new jobs to North Carolina in the middle of an economic downturn.

Q. Asheboro Elastics is a family-owned business. Who is minding the store while you're working in Raleigh?

A. "For the last 12 or 13 years I've had two sons working with me, and they have stepped up. Plus I have a son-in-law, who's worked a little less time, he's stepped up." Also, a family friend will serve as interim chief operating officer.
"I had to work that out in order to take this job. ... I trust them and plus it's a great opportunity for my sons and son-in-law to see the decision making of a professional manager that's not Dad."

Q. You have a reputation as a fairly well-traveled individual, someone who has been to all seven continents and had the opportunity to live abroad. Where's the favorite place you've been?

A. Crisco pointed out a picture of himself in his office that features him standing with penguins in Antarctica. "The most pristine, unusual, glad-I-went place is Antarctica because there's no full-time inhabitants; three-quarters of the world's fresh water is there.''

Q. You have an MBA from Harvard. How did a kid from Stanly County end up going to that fancy school in Boston?

A.Crisco says he graduated from Pfeiffer University with a degree in math and physics and a 2.91 GPA. After getting rejected from management programs because his undergraduate grades weren't good enough, he applied to Harvard, which wait-listed him.
As Crisco tells it, the Dean of the school said, "'Mr. Crisco, we have one problem with your application. Nobody at Harvard has ever heard of Pfeiffer.' Now, I came back and said, 'Dean, many people at Pfeiffer have never heard of Harvard.' That's exactly what I said. I said, 'Thank you,' knowing I had blown the interview, went back, got on the train. Rode it all the way back to Baltimore. ... Before Christmas, I got a wire saying I had been accepted. I know that statement got me in. ... That backbone, he liked it. It was a chance to sell myself, which is an important part of life."

Q. You have been a council member in Asheboro, which Forbes recently singled out as one of America's fastest-dying towns, a designation the city bristles at. How has that experience shaped the approach you'll take as commerce secretary?

A. Crisco says Asheboro is not as bad off as the Forbes article portrayed, noting that there are major manufacturers close to the city limits. Still, he says, the town had been slow to react to the new economic realities, focusing too much at times on recruiting traditional industrial jobs that no longer existed.
"North Carolina has to understand globalization is here, and we need to put our efforts in industrial development and economic development in those areas where we can compete worldwide."

Q. Speaking of adapting to new realities, you have testified before Congress in favor of free trade deals like NAFTA and CAFTA. A lot of workers blame the loss of their jobs on those deals and, more broadly, the growing trend of globalization.

A. "They do. And my position is on NAFTA and CAFTA, those forces were at play - for example, jobs were moving to Mexico in the 1980s before we ever thought about it. Globalization was an issue that was at play independent of any trade rules we have. ... Yes, the jobs have been lost overseas. Is it because of NAFTA? The truth is NAFTA may have accelerated it. NAFTA didn't work out the way we all wanted it to, maybe because Mexico hasn't done their part. But the alternative of putting barriers around this country is not good long-term economic policy."

Q. What will you to do to help North Carolina navigate this new world?

A. Crisco says he will be "pushing the strengths of North Carolina, pushing our work climate, our people, the strength in our work force, and understanding we can compete in general manufacturing."

Q. A recent UNC report suggested getting rid of certain tax credits given to companies for job creation and, perhaps as a trade-off, lowering the corporate tax rate. Have you read that and what do you think?

A. "I'm about halfway through it. ... It's based on research. That's what we ought to do. They researched what worked and what didn't. It wasn't just from a political philosophy."

Q. Do you have a general approach or philosophy you're going to apply to this job?

A. "Let me tell you what I told (Gov. Bev Perdue) when we talked about me taking the job ... I said my vision is you need somebody who will get out of the office and go meet one-on-one with prospects. And (I said) 'Governor ... I'm the sales department. I may ask you to come close the deal. Will you do it?' And she said 'yes.' There's a marching order for her engagement and my engagement in economic development."

Q. Just before you came on the job, the Commerce Department approved $600,000 for an Atlanta-based startup with no existing operations on the promise that it could bring 1,000 jobs to Hickory. Would you have approved that deal?

A. "In hindsight, I wouldn't have, but that's not fair. ... There is a risk associated with (recruiting companies). We won't bat a thousand. If I spend four or eight years here and we have a lot of hits, I bet we'll strike out one time. I bet we'll be embarrassed one time. That's not a reason not to do it."

Q. You were quoted once as describing Asheboro as being in an "economic war." Does that apply to the whole state?

A. "We are in an economic rivalry at least. A decision made in Beijing affects decisions made in Raleigh and Charlotte and Asheboro. We are connected at the hip, whether we like it or not."

Q. So I asked you a bunch of questions. What didn't we hit on?

A. "Another thing going through my mind with all what's going on in the overall economy: People are worried and they need to know that there's somebody here who cares and who is working on it."

Contact Mark Binker at (919) 832-5549 or mark.binker@news-record.com