Call Him ‘Entrepren-eer’: Councilmember Andy Wilson Addresses NAACP Pasadena

Introducing himself by saying he was the “last person he ever thought be a politician,” newly appointed District Seven Councilmember Andy Wilson last night addressed a public meeting of the executive board of the NAACP Pasadena Branch.

Wilson was appointed by a Council vote in June to fill elected Mayor Terry Tornek’s seat on the Council. His term will last through May 2017. He is best known locally as the CEO of Rexter, a software company, and co-founder and co-chair of the board of directors of Innovate Pasadena, a non-profit incubator whose mission, according to their website, “is to create a vibrant ecosystem of technology and design innovation in the greater Pasadena area that supports sustainable economic growth.”

Wilson told the assembled group that growing up as the son of oil executive, he moved 13 times before the age of 30. He eventually, after all that moving, earned a bachelor of science in engineering and an MBA from Harvard, forming the two sides of his entrepreneurial dynamic.

And Wilson says he knew, when he finally moved to Pasadena as an adult, he had found home.

“I’m a great evangelist for the city,” he said. “I’ve even convinced my brothers and sisters to live here, as well as a number of other families. I’m going to be here a long time.”

Wilson also discussed his role in the formation and ongoing implementation of Innovate Pasadena.

“We have a 20-person-board, including 15 CEOs and three council members, (and they) are engaging key institutions here. But you have to actually mix those ingredients together with the community,” he said.

“It’s time we committed to punching at at least our own weight class,” he continued.

“For example, much of what we do is programming, but that won’t work with Caltech nerds,” he smiled. “You have to engage them, you have to have workshops and hack-a-thons, and then they come out,” he said.

So, over the last two years, he said, the group has held over 300 events that have engaged more than 15,000 people.

“Extraordinary things are happening, deals are getting made, people are getting hired, and we are creating those connections and interceptions,” said Wilson.

He also touted the idea of “co-working spaces” in which local companies create dedicated working space to Innovate Pasadena members.

“Working in a cubicle is not the way these young, innovative people work and meet,”Wilson explained. “They work at Starbucks, they work remote, they work online, and through Skype. But then they still need meeting places.”

“I looked at Santa Monica and they had 10 or 12 of these co-working spaces,” he continued, “and we had none. So I started inviting these Santa Monica working space guys to Pasadena and taking them to lunch, to show them around. Two years later, we have Cross-Campus, and Epic Spaces, and soon we will have three co-working spaces in this city.”

Moving toward the subject of recommendations for the group, Wilson said, “Innovation is for everyone. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist. But you need to have your voice heard, and you need to get educated.”

Wilson noted that Innovate Pasadena has a number of working groups, and called out to the executive board to participate and organize as well.

“Reach out to those who are entrepreneurial, get them involved,” Wilson implored. “Think about how to engage your community. Wilson then explained the company’s “Program Innovators” program, which seeks to find the new entrepreneurs in a community.

“We don’t need program directors to sit in a cubicle and be administrators. We want the entrepreneurs. We seek them out and we fund them,” he said. “We need people who are eager to organize others like them together, and share our common mission.”

And when one young member of the audience pressed, asking, “When can you write the check?” Wilson responded, “Right now.”

Consider it a cue.

More information on Innovate Pasadena is available at http://www.innovatepasadena.org.