Hartford Business Journal

14 HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | JANUARY 13, 2025 5 TO WATCH 'Seriousness of purpose' Rayha himself got to see up-close the impact the pandemic had on shipbuilding. "My first day at EB was January 13, 2020. So, I did the COVID-19 lock- downs in the Mystic Residence Inn," he recalled. Rayha had moved to Connecticut from Virginia, after a 30-year career with Electric Boat's parent, General Dynamics. The Michigan native joined GD Land Systems in 1989 at the Detroit Arsenal Tank Plant, and spent 17 years there. Then from 2006 through 2014, he worked at General Dynamics' corporate headquarters in Falls Church, Virginia, rising to staff vice president of financial planning and analysis. In late 2014, at the time of the creation of General Dynamics Mission Systems, he assumed the role of vice president and chief finan- cial officer of the new company. In late 2019, he got the call to move to Groton, at first as EB's vice presi- dent of finance. "Working at EB is an honor," he said, calling the submarine builder a national treasure. "Any place you work at General Dynamics you look to EB as the bellwether. The product is the most complicated product humankind can make." But with the pandemic hitting mere weeks after his arrival, the challenge was a different one than he had expected. Electric Boat was designated as an essential business, and work at the shipyard continued, although under very constrained conditions to avoid passing the virus among the workforce. "One of the things about being in this business is we drill a lot of things about business continuity during a disaster," he said. "And so, because of that we had a way to go about creating what we called our COVID-19 playbook." That playbook gained national attention as the White House sent some of its healthcare leadership to EB to observe how they were tackling the crisis, and asked them to pilot some workplace protocols. Rayha became CFO in July 2021, and then chief operating officer in September 2023, working under then-president Kevin Graney, a man whose work he admires. "He brought a seriousness of purpose and preparation," Rayha said. "Kevin is extremely well-prepared. And so, as a business, we became better prepared because of that." 'Hardcore' shipbuilding Rayha wants to continue that theme of preparation as he takes over from Graney, while renewing the company's focus on human capital. "Submarine shipbuilding is hard- core — it's high-end manufacturing," he said. "You have to put your hands on the product. A lot of the welding is hand welding you can't automate. So, it takes very, very talented and coura- geous people to do it. So, that's the biggest challenge for us — developing and keeping that workforce." He says efforts to improve the work- force pipeline through accelerated training programs have borne fruit. The yard continues to partner with state agencies, the Eastern Connecticut Workforce Investment Board and local colleges to prepare recruits. And they're reaching deeper. "We have K-to-12 programs now," Rayha said. "Now we're not hiring them yet, but we're getting them indoctrinated into what does it mean to be a shipbuilder?" Those efforts can run from classes where grade school children are welding crackers together with cheese whiz, to hard hat "signing ceremonies" with high schoolers. He's grateful for the federal efforts that have been focused recently both on workforce development and on the submarine industrial base generally, to modernize the supply chain. The Navy has so far spent at least $2.3 billion on an initiative to build and strengthen the capacity and resiliency of the industrial base that supports EB's work. That can mean funding new equip- ment and training at existing supply chain companies, or helping new companies enter the supply chain where there's a critical need. These efforts included the attrac- tion of a private equity investment in the Austal USA shipyard in Mobile, Alabama, which has begun building steel modules for the Virginia class program. Rayha does not believe the change of administration in Washington, D.C., will impact the yard's work signifi- cantly, noting that there's always been bipartisan support for the programs that fund submarine building. But several political issues do remain to be decided this year. One is the so-called AUKUS program that will see Australia acquire between three and five U.S. Virginia-class subs, each of which will cost about $4.3 billion. It's unknown where Donald Trump stands on the 2021 agreement. The other is efforts by legislators and the Navy to send more aid to shipbuilders that are locked into fixed-price contracts at a time when the cost of both materials and wages have risen significantly. Shipyard Accountability and Work- force Support — or SAWS, as the proposal is known — would allow some flexibility in the Navy's acquisition program to bring forward funds that have been allocated to future years, in order to cover more immediate costs. Rayha is taking a wait-and-see approach. "We've been getting good support for that on the Hill," he said. "It's just a matter of how you go about doing it, and I think that's where the debate still lies." Continuing to develop the future workforce while in a temporary hiring lull presents a challenging contra- diction, he acknowledged, but Rayha remains steadfast on the yard's long-term future. "Our backlog now stretches out into the early 2030s," he said. "The program plan is to build 12 Columbia class, and that production will last out to 2040. So, there's a big opportunity for a new worker to enjoy a long and lucrative career at General Dynamics Electric Boat." Building Momentum Kooris to lead Municipal Redevelopment Authority in first multifamily housing investments nonprofit that consults with commu- nities and transit authorities around planning initiatives. Kooris found himself out in the field, talking with community stake- holders about potential develop- ments. He saw a chance to influence infrastructure and settlement patterns for public good. After graduating from the Univer- sity of Pennsylvania with a master's degree in city and regional planning in 2005, Kooris took a full-time job with the Regional Plan Association. There, much of his work centered on organizing community forums about development initiatives around rail hubs in New York and New Jersey. There were a lot of competing interests — affordable housing advocates, economic development boosters, open space preservation- ists and others. Kooris' job was to reconcile these groups, which is part of his responsibilities leading MRDA. "What I learned from that process was bringing those folks together, engaging in a meaningful and honest participatory process would always result in an increased acceptance of development, of housing production, DAVID KOORIS Executive Director Connecticut Municipal Redevelopment Authority Education: Bachelor's degree in urban studies and anthropology, Montreal's McGill University; master's in city and regional plan- ning, University of Pennsylvania Age: 44 By Michael Puffer mpuffer@hartfordbusiness.com A new quasi-public state agency armed with $60 million to spur multifamily housing in Connecticut downtowns and around mass transit hubs will begin to fund its first projects this year. At the helm of the newly formed Connecticut Municipal Redevel- opment Authority (MRDA) is David Kooris, a 44-year-old Fairfield native who has led planning and economic development initiatives for Connecticut municipalities and state agencies over the past 17 years. "The mission is to support munici- palities in their efforts to build more housing in their downtowns and around their trains or rapid bus transit systems," Kooris said. "The Governor and I believe strongly there is a crit- ical mass of communities that want to (add multifamily housing), but they need some technical support, they need some resources." Reconciling differences Kooris graduated from Montreal's McGill University in 2002, with a bach- elor's degree in urban studies and anthropology. He began his college studies focused on archeology, fascinated by the way infrastructure and settlement patterns reflected the culture of ancient civilizations. But archeology lost a bit of its luster over time as Kooris discovered much of the work would happen in lonely laboratories and quiet offices, rather than on dig sites. It wasn't exactly Indiana Jones. During his senior year, Kooris discovered the field of urban plan- ning, which led to a post-graduate internship with the New York-based Regional Plan Association, a Mark Rayha Continued from page 13

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