'The Hub' with Michael Allen sponsored by Manpower Richmond
Welcome to "The Hub with Michael Allen," the podcast that dives deep into the stories of community leaders and business owners who are making a difference. Join your host, Michael Allen, as he uncovers the untold narratives, challenges, and triumphs of those shaping their communities.
In each episode, Michael sits down with remarkable individuals who have dedicated their lives to improving their neighborhoods, towns, and cities. These community leaders are passionate, driven, and committed to creating positive change. Whether they are activists, educators, philanthropists, or civic officials, they all share a common goal: to build stronger, more vibrant communities.
"The Hub" also showcases the journeys of business owners who have turned their dreams into reality. From small-scale startups to well-established enterprises, these entrepreneurs share their insights, experiences, and lessons learned along the way. Michael delves into the unique challenges they face, the strategies they employ, and the impact their businesses have on the local economy and society at large.
With engaging conversations and thought-provoking discussions, "The Hub with Michael Allen" provides listeners with valuable takeaways, inspiration, and actionable ideas. Each episode offers a glimpse into the minds and hearts of those who are actively shaping the fabric of their communities, providing a roadmap for listeners who want to make a difference in their own lives and surroundings.
Tune in to "The Hub with Michael Allen" and join the conversation as we explore the stories of community leaders and business owners who are leaving an indelible mark on the world around them. Get ready to be inspired, motivated, and empowered to take action. Together, we can create a better tomorrow for everyone.
Sponsored by Manpower Richmond.
'The Hub' with Michael Allen sponsored by Manpower Richmond
Ep. 5 | Jason Fleming on the Future of Biotech and Work Culture at Liberation Labs
Join us on a fascinating journey as we sit down with Jason Fleming, the driving force behind Human Resources at Liberation Labs. From his humble beginnings at a marina to his energetic dedication to fostering a better work culture, Jason's career in HR is as unique as it gets. We delve into the heart of biotech innovation, uncovering the inspiring plans for Liberation Labs' new precision fermentation manufacturing facility in Richmond, Indiana.
We unwrap the story behind the facility's creation, revealing the exciting roles it will offer and the revolutionary training programs backed by post-secondary education institutions. Hear Jason's take on the warm welcome by the Richmond community and his ambitious plans for creating more opportunity in the biotech sector. We explore the thrilling potential of the biotech industry and the pivotal role companies like Liberation Labs play. Listen in as Jason shares his infectious enthusiasm and insightful thoughts on the future of work, innovation, community impact, and the biotech landscape.
Hello and welcome to the hub powered by manpower richman, and I am your host, michael Allen, and here on the hub we interview local business leaders, community partners and various special guests. We share unique and untold stories of companies, organizations and people. We're making a difference in our community. Manpower Richman is a sponsor of the hub, is a national brand, yet we're a locally owned franchise and we're familiar with the challenges businesses face. It's tough recruiting and retaining qualified employees. Our entire focus is on talent acquisition, so let us help you manage your hiring and training, provide some ongoing, customized support.
Speaker 1:Since 1966, we've been an invested community partner, uniquely positioned to help companies win. Let us help. Contact manpower today Learn more information. You can go to mprichmancom. That's mprichmancom. Good morning. I've got Jason Fleming with me today and our guest and he is head of human resources for liberation labs, and liberation labs is a new company building a facility in Richmond, indiana. So welcome to the hub, jason. Thank you for having me. We want to hear a lot about liberation labs, but before we go there, please tell me a little bit about yourself.
Speaker 2:Happy to do that. So I'm head of HR for liberation labs. I've been in the HR space for about 15 years. I live in Toronto, ontario, canada, and born in a place called Pennetang machine, ontario, which you probably haven't heard of, and I have been in biotech now for four years or so with a couple of startups, and really happy to be here. I spend a lot of time in Richmond these days and it's a beautiful place.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm really excited about having this conversation with you today and I joked about earlier, you know. Thank you for flying in from Canada just to do the hub. Of course, I know that's not the only thing you're doing, so part of the tradition I've started on the hub is I like to ask what was your first job, your very first job, that?
Speaker 2:you had. Yeah, my first paid job was I worked at a marina and in Pennetang machine and basically did maintenance around the property and pumped fuel and diesel into large, large yachts and pumped out their subject tanks.
Speaker 1:That was the first time, so how, so how it was 14. About 14?, yeah, how was it Like a port or off of a lake, or is it more like the ocean? I still know the geography of the area.
Speaker 2:That yeah it was a lake. So Georgian Bay is a very kind of scenic, beautiful part of the province of Ontario in Canada and so very a lot of tourists and it was one of the larger marinas in the area.
Speaker 1:So how much were you making an hour back then, do you remember I?
Speaker 2:think it was, I think it was under. I think it was maybe under seven dollars.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well that's that's.
Speaker 1:I think that's pretty good, because my first job was like 235 an hour, so, but no, that is awesome. Thanks for sharing that. So so you're the head of human resources and You're also a certified human resources executive. What says on your, on your tagline, right emails, and so what? What drew you into HR? I mean, have you always been an HR or was that a career path you set out?
Speaker 2:I you know it's fine. I had a, I had an intense experience when I first graduated from university, working in a large financial institution. It was right in the recession, you know 0809 and employment was, you know, scarce and it was, you know, a lot of layoffs and I, I, I didn't get laid off, but I saw the really kind of intense environment and Really stressed out group of people and thought, you know, there's a better way to do this. There's definitely opportunities to, I think, improve the way some things are being done in human resources and create better environments, better cultures. And so it was actually that, that kind of negative experience, that got me looking into HR and there was a college that offered a postgraduate course about About, you know, five-minute drive from actually where I was working, and so I actually went in, I talked to the dean of the program and I applied and haven't looked back since great great.
Speaker 1:So is this your first HR experience? I mean, where did you kind of cut your teeth in HR? So I did.
Speaker 2:I Did a IT executive recruiting so I was my first real kind of job where I was working in the field. So I did that for about two years and I left to to work at a large transportation company, so the largest petroleum and chemical transporter in Canada. I joined there to leave their recruitment and then worked my way up to the director of HR for six years or so and then from there Kind of kept moving into CPG and then and then eventually biotech. So it's been kind of transport CPG, biotech over the last 15 and sit on a couple of boards to a board of a tech company and a board of a utility company in Canada.
Speaker 1:So when did your relationship start with Liberation Labs?
Speaker 2:So my my relationship with our founders started before Liberation Labs existed. We we worked together at a previous biotech startup and they called me. It was on me. I was trying to have a vacation and our chief business officer called me and talked me through this really great idea and sort of convinced me to jump in. And so it was probably it's over a year ago, I mean shortly after they founded the business, I started supporting as a kind of consultant, doing some some basic HR prep, and then, once we really started to get some momentum, I joined full-time.
Speaker 1:So an article I recently read said that Liberation Labs selects selected Indiana for its first biomanufacturing facility, and Another term I've used is precision fermentation manufacturing facility. So what is the product you'll be making in Richmond? I think that's it's. I've tried to understand it, but I don't know if I'm totally there yet.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's, it's a new technology, it's very innovative and you know, you're certainly not alone. In 10 years this will be, you know, massive sector. Every state will have probably some some type of a of a company operating out of it. But when you hear precision fermentation, so basically the shortest way to explain it is we will be. We're manufacturing company, specifically biomanufacturing, that will use a large-scale fermentation process to produce High-quality ingredients. Those ingredients will be sold to other organizations, they will incorporate them into their products and then they will sell to consumers. So we're an ingredient manufacturer that Will sell to other corp. So it'll be business to business and then those ingredients will range depending on customer needs. But you know, most commonly likely would be protein, protein powders. But there's a number of other products that could use our ingredients, like high-performance fabrics, biopesticides. So the the ingredients themselves can be used in a number of different industries.
Speaker 1:Do you already kind of have a company lined up that you plan to provide your product to, or I mean, it's just you got to get it running and then you put it out there in the market and people are gonna probably come in.
Speaker 2:So we're yeah, I think we have some plans. I don't think we can go too much into detail there, but we definitely have a fair amount of interest and, I think, some groups that I think we've entered into some pretty advanced discussions with. But the thing about being a contract manufacturer is that you will have customers. You may have multiple customers at a time, or you can certainly run projects for different customers over the years as well.
Speaker 1:Mark Warner, the co-founder, and he's the CEO of the Creation Labs. Another article I read says there's three things a biomanufacturing facility like ours needs are sugar, power and people, and Richmond has them all. So tell me about that statement and how that played a role in Richmond benefiting from your selection of our community.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So what were the three things that he said, because sometimes they change? Yeah, it was sugar power and people. Yeah, so I'd add a fourth, which would be proximity to transportation as well. So the rail line and interstate, yeah, those are really the three or four ingredients. You need to identify, I think, a site or a location to build a site like ours and I know Mark in ATAN, like Mark, knows more about this type of work than, I think, anyone potentially in the world, but he, I think, undertook a fairly extensive process to select a site Some locations in the US, some outside, some globally and Richmond emerged as a very clear top choice for us. So I think definitely those four components are here. I think, in addition to that, I mean, the state is very, very easy to do business and very pro business, and then the community as well has been incredibly supportive of what we're doing. So those elements, I think, really also have helped kind of reinforce this as being the right choice for sure.
Speaker 1:And I think I'm correct in when they talk about sugar, they're talking about processing corn.
Speaker 2:Corn. Yeah, so we need to feed the organisms that we're using in fermentation and generally that would come from corn Right and there's.
Speaker 1:I think facilities that would support this area, that in the region, like maybe out of Cincinnati, dayton, indianapolis so that's always been a real selling point for Richmond is our close proximity to other larger areas and kind of a crossroads between those different regions, and so that's always been something I think that's been promoted by an economic development or when we're trying to attract companies to our area. And then Interstate 70 just runs right through here and you're also your comment about rail, so you've already started connecting in the community. So tell me about some of your local partnerships, maybe some of the partnership agreements that you might already have in place. We've kind of talked about this at one other conversation that we had about talking about this maybe?
Speaker 2:Yeah, we've. So far. The Wayne County Chamber of Commerce, the EDC, has been incredible, really incredible partners. We've also selected AMG out of Dayton as our engineering firm. They've been great and have started some exploratory conversations with some post-secondary institutions as well on some training partnerships. So we've had some great chats with Ivy, Eastern Indiana U. So great great groups here that I think are very agile, very, very adaptable to work with business. Of course, manpower has been good and we've now hired our first and hopefully soon our second, Richmond based employee. So we've definitely started to build out that footprint and I think those partnerships have been very important to learn about the community and kind of learn how to really be a successful employer and very, you know, people have been very open and happy to share best practices and information. That have been very helpful and probably saved us a lot of pain and trial and error.
Speaker 1:Have you been kind of one of the primary point persons for Liberation Labs and some of these you know, partnerships, or I mean who else is kind of working with you to do that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, depending on the nature of the partnership employment and training related it's. You know, primarily myself are head of manufacturing. Brian Foster has been great as well. He's got a lot of good experience with the partnerships with colleges. Anything else generally would run through either Mark or a gentleman named Mark Johnson who is our external affairs lead and so sort of. We divide and conquer depending on the nature of the partnership.
Speaker 1:Another conversation that we had prior to today was you spoke about the organizational structure you plan to build here at this facility. Can you share that with us?
Speaker 2:Sure, yeah, I mean. So we're going to be creating 45 jobs 45 to 50, and they will. There's a wide range of roles, so we'll have you know, about half of those will be tied to manufacturing Manufacturing technicians.
Speaker 2:Shift supervisors will need a number of engineers folks you know that are also in maintenance and reliability and then we'll need your traditional corporate resources you know safety, hr, finance, things like that. So it'll be a wide range. A lot of these roles we've designed to be not requiring post-secondary. So, especially on some of the you know, some of the manufacturing roles, I think we, you know, definitely have created good paying jobs or we'll be creating good paying jobs that will be, I think, very suited for a lot of the skills and competencies in the area and other manufacturing areas.
Speaker 1:You know your facility is going to be very unique and so you may not have people, you're not going to have people from the industry. So it's a big part of it you training up these individuals to understand your, you know, your process, your product. Is that a big part of it? I hope I'm explaining myself well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no it definitely is. I mean, it's not a biotech hub Like the area is not a biotech hub. There's a lot of transferable skills that you know. Strong project engineers, you know, can be brought up to speed on some of the fundamentals of biotech, certainly when it comes to some of the more hands-on roles. That's why we're really pursuing these partnerships with post-secondary education, so that we can, you know, create repeatable training programs where we can hire a person who's maybe never worked in biotech or heard of biotech. You know, give them some classroom and some hands-on training and equip them with the skills they'll need to be able to come into the facility and produce for us.
Speaker 1:So do you think that's primarily going to be a relationship that you have with Ivy Tech? Do you think that's, or?
Speaker 2:I think you know there's certainly a possibility that we could work with more than one group. So I think Ivy Tech is, you know, great. You know and we've had some discussions with others as well that I think everyone can fill in some of the needs. But I think Ivy Tech, so far you know, we've definitely explored a partnership with them, and it's something that they've done with other groups as well. So they, I think, would be a great option.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're really fortunate to have, you know, great programs here locally with Ivy Tech and IU East, and then also having Irwin College in our community.
Speaker 2:Irwin's another one. Great, great group yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're really fortunate to have all those institutions in our community. So what kind of timeline are we talking about as far as these? You know, you said you have a couple of employees now. I mean we're just where things stand with construction and you know, because you can't hire a lot of people if you don't have a facility. I mean so kind of where is everything lining up right now?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we've got about 15 employees now the majority are corporate resources that are remote come into Richmond and other locations as needed. We've, I think, likely to have, you know, two or three folks based locally and we'll be hiring the talent that is needed early. We'll continue to hire that. But the big push will be in 2024, assuming the construction timeline holds, which I think the expectation is to be, you know, finished construction Q4 of 24, and then start operating shortly after that. But assuming that we stick to that, q3 and Q2 and Q3 of 2024, I think will be where we really start to, you know, start to push large scale recruiting efforts, especially when we factor in the need to bring people in and provide extensive training before they're able to operate in the facility. So, yeah, it's a Q2. Q3 is when, I think locally, there'll be a significant recruiting efforts underway.
Speaker 1:And I think people will be really excited. You know, kind of, hey, I want to get a job there. There's going to be a time where I mean, you want to encourage the enthusiasm at the same time you may not be ready, you know. So you know how will that be communicated to the public when it's the right time to reach out to, to Liberation Labs for these opportunities?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and look, we've had a lot of interest already, which has been really cool because to really impressive candidates have proactively reached out. I'd say we're always excited to have those conversations and we are very transparent about our timeline, that we've got to build the thing before we start hiring. And actually we poured concrete yesterday. One of our engineers, mike Witham, who's based locally here. I think he got up at maybe it was 2.30 am to be there to oversee the pouring of concrete. So it's exciting. That's a big step, obviously, but I would say you know the messaging is we will post almost every role on our Bamboo HR site, which is sort of a recruiting tool that we use and it's where everyone can apply, and then we collaborate internally on the different jobs with the different hiring managers. So every job that we create will be posted on our Bamboo site. So if people monitor that, they'll be able to be current.
Speaker 1:So do they go to share exactly how they get to?
Speaker 2:that. So it's a URL. It's just, basically, they can create a bookmark and it'll be our company's profile with a list of all the vacancies on it.
Speaker 2:But, I can send it to you after and hopefully we can share it, but that will be a list of all active roles. We also post on LinkedIn and I think we intend on likely hosting some information sessions when we plan on kind of ramping up that large-scale recruiting effort. We'll likely have some information sessions locally so that people can meet our group and we can tell them more about the company and it will be very communicative at that point and make sure that anyone who's interested knows kind of when and where so that we can start to meet folks in person.
Speaker 1:Great, awesome. So you've been here on the scene early. So what's the things look like for you personally? I mean in terms of your involvement here next year maybe 2025, I think we spoke and you're not necessarily going to be stationed here, but I think you plan to be here quite a bit.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:How's that going to look for you personally?
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is. Mark actually said something the other day. He said if anyone has any really fun vacations that they plan on taking, you take those now, because when we're finishing construction and throughout the startup, we're going to be in Richmond a lot and I personally love it here. It reminds me of the town I grew up in. It's similar size. But I'll be here probably every six to eight weeks at least, if not more frequently, while we're in construction for meetings and to build these partnerships. When we are close to launch I'd say probably Q3, q4 of next year I would imagine I'd be here every other week and then we'll eventually hire some folks locally in HR and safety to make sure there's always a presence here. But I'll be here very frequently second half of 24 and 25 and beyond, I'm sure.
Speaker 1:Great, so we've touched a lot of different things. Is there anything that you want to share about Liberation Labs that I've maybe forgot to ask you, or something that's come in your mind since we've been sitting here?
Speaker 2:I'd say. First thing I would say is to just say that we are very appreciative of, first of all, manpower. You guys have been great and, even before we were working together, a lot of time and advice, which was very helpful. The community in general has been so welcoming. It was very, very pleasant to start doing business here because of how excited people were and just really people going out of their way to help ensure that we were getting pointed in the right direction. So really appreciate that. We're very excited.
Speaker 2:I think we have a really strong culture. We all collectively our leadership team now has made it a priority to build a workplace that is very, very productive but very enjoyable, and so when we go to market, we're excited to show what we're all about, bring people in to this kind of small but mighty company we're building and, I think, create really great jobs that ultimately will help people advance their career and open up new doors in the biotech space. So we're thrilled and I'm personally really excited to start having those sessions in the community meet with people, tell them what we're all about and then start hiring more folks in the community.
Speaker 1:We do a great job of communicating what's going on with your company and just talking to you you get really encouraged about what you're going to bring to the community and I'm glad to hear the positive things you said about the help that you've received. I think sometimes we take for granted all the different organizations and people that help out in the community and try to bring try companies like Liberation Lab. So I'm glad to hear that you've had a great experience in our community that way and so it'd be kind of fun, maybe like a year from now, that sit down again and kind of see how things progressed over a 12 month period and hear more about how this story has unfolded. And we just look for great things from your company and so glad that you're a part of it. I guess. Thank you for coming today and it's been a great conversation and best of luck moving forward. Appreciate it. Thanks a lot, Thank you.