Natalie Gochnour was invited to Park City a few weeks ago to talk about all things Utah.
Gochnour, many will recall, has several official titles — associate dean in the David Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah, director of the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute, chief economist for the Salt Lake Chamber — but perhaps her greatest role is as an ambassador for the state she calls home. She’s also an adviser to, well, everyone who needs to make an important policy decision. That means governors, university presidents, planners, investors and even members of the media trying to predict the future.
She’s the person to turn to when you really want to know what’s going on. She knows the numbers and she knows the people.
“I went up to Park City to meet with a group called the Northern Trust. They’re an investment fund. They’re a group of people that, you know, allocate capital. And they were asking questions about Utah,” she said, when she sat down with me for a video interview about “The New Utah,” as she calls it.
“I will never forget a gentleman on the front row raising his hand after a group of us had presented and he said, ‘it’s green, it’s green.’ He was basically saying, when it comes to Utah, when it comes to, you know, doubling down and trying to figure out where to put your money, where to put capital, where to take risks in Utah, it’s green light, green light, green light,” she said.
Back in 1847, Brigham Young looked out over the Salt Lake Valley and proclaimed “This is the right place.” That sentiment has only grown as the state has reached a new inflection point. Listen to what Gochnour has to say about the six transitions that are occurring in the state, what the 2002 Olympics did for Utah, and the thing she worries about the most.