Frank Cioffi / Board Member

Frank Cioffi is one of the founding directors of VCET and the current chair of their board. Dubbed “The renaissance economic development man” by Vermont Business Magazine, his contributions to the state are truly significant. He has served as the President of GBIC since 1998 and is the longest-serving member of UVM’s Board of Trustees. In this Q&A, learn more about Frank’s career highlights, what motivates him, and his thoughts on where the state should focus its efforts.

Blaise: Frank! You’re a lifelong Vermonter. What was it like to grow up in St. Albans? 

Frank: It’s a great community – small, tight-knit, and plenty of recreational opportunities. St. Albans is a couple miles from the lake and we have our own ski hill. Back in the 1800s, a family donated 100 acres to the children of St. Albans, and now it’s this hillside called Aldis Hill. There’s also mountain biking, walking and running trails, and downhill and cross-country skiing on that site. 

Blaise: You studied Political Science at UVM before graduating in 1977. What was your experience like at the university?

Frank: It was incredibly fun and really interesting. I went to UVM right after Vietnam, so the campus was an interesting place with protests. The war was not popular among college students at the time. I got involved in student government in my junior year… and in one board committee meeting, some older gentleman made a motion to do away with co-ed housing. I went to vote and they told me students couldn’t vote. So I ran for student government president, and then we put a bill through the legislature to amend the UVM charter, and now there are two students on the board of trustees. 

Blaise: Vermont Business Magazine wrote a whole section about that in a feature on you. In that story, I saw a picture of you in your light suit behind the actual bill being signed. 

Frank: Yeah! And I had hair. That VBM feature story is the longest obituary in history.

Frank Cioffi (light suit) to the left of former Vermont governor, Richard Snelling, as the bill to create two student trustee positions was signed into law in 1977. 

Blaise: Before you worked for the Greater Burlington Industrial Corp. (“GBIC”), you had a few entrepreneurial projects, including owning a bar in Burlington. On that note – I read that you once helped bring Bob Marley to Burlington. Is that true?

Frank: Yes! I had built a bar that’s still in town: Rasputin’s. I viewed it as a good time for a couple years and the opportunity to make a bunch of money. My partner and I eventually sold our interest to the other partners, so we had some money. It was the night that we closed, and Bonnie Raitt was in town, and one of my friends owned a restaurant and invited us to go hang out. I was sitting at the bar, and this guy eventually said to me, ‘I’m a concert agent, and I booked Bonnie for this show.’ So I said, ‘Well, you couldn’t get either of the two people I’d love to bring to Burlington.’ He said, ‘Yeah, who’s that?’ I go, ‘Bob Marley or Frank Zappa.’ The next day, around 1 o’clock, the phone rings, and it’s this guy. He says, ‘You’ve got Bob Marley for two shows on November 1st. I need $15,000 by tomorrow.’ I wanted to make sure he was legit, so I went to my lawyer’s office the next day and then we wired the money. We ended up bringing Bob Marley and the Wailers here and got to hang out with them in Montreal two days before our show. We sold out and broke even. 

A poster of the Bob Marley show still hangs up in the VCET kitchen. The view overlooks Memorial Auditorium where the concert was hosted. 

Blaise: You eventually became the president of GBIC in 1998, a position you still hold today. You’ve often said that this job is a passion more than anything – what about the work do you love? 

Frank: Our mission is to retain and attract high-wage, high-value jobs for Vermonters. We’re micro-focused on the employers that bring dollar one into the Vermont economy before it starts multiplying. We’re working with about 400 key employers – in Chittenden County, there’s probably over 7000 employers. We try to understand what [employers] do and what they need to remain competitive in Vermont. 

Blaise: Let’s chat about one of the companies that GBIC helped back in the 1950s. The story is that Thomas J. Watson, the former CEO of IBM, loved to ski here and decided to buy one of GBIC’s industrial parks. Looking back, just how important was IBM to Vermont’s economy? 

Frank: IBM was leading the world in technology with big mainframe computers. It was the company – until Microsoft came around – in computing and data processing. I used to… have lunch with this older gentleman, Red Martin, the founder of WCAX TV. I learned a great deal of history from him, about Vermont and economic development. He said, ‘IBM opened Vermont to the world, and the world to Vermont.’ And he was right: It made us credible as a place that was serious about attracting high-value manufacturing. And I can tell you that that was not lost on a lot of the German companies that ended up coming here. We have a defense sector now, but machining was always big, and now it’s also microelectronics, advanced computing, and plastics. It’s really interesting to see that GlobalFoundries is still here. The embedded value of that campus is a couple billion dollars, if it’s up and running, because it uses more electricity than the city of Burlington. And it has the biggest wastewater treatment system in the state of Vermont. It’s a city of industry. We’re lucky Mr. Watson loved to ski. 

Blaise: You’ve worked with many of the biggest companies in Vermont, from Dealer.com to BETA. What makes a company successful here?

Frank: A century ago, Vermont was primarily agricultural. There were a lot of folks that worked in agriculture that then made a pretty good transition into manufacturing, because they were clever and resourceful. Today, we have more people doing value-added services than we do in manufacturing. Vermont’s workforce is really good – we’ve always had a lot of creative people. When you work in economic development, it gives you an appreciation for entrepreneurship, which is why we started VCET.

Blaise: You’ve said before that a central challenge to Vermont’s economic development is retaining our college and university students. Vermont attracts 40,000 of them annually – what do we need to do to retain a higher yield? 

Frank: We need to have housing that’s affordable, that isn’t taking 40% of your income. Housing and development of new residential communities needs to be a real priority for the next decade. Vermont does need to grow, we’re an aging population. When I went to high school here, there were probably 120,000 students in K through 12; today, it’s less than 80,000. Wages and salaries have to keep pace as well. 

Blaise: You’re also the longest-tenured member of UVM’s board, now in your 24th year. Why does this board, and the university in general, mean so much to you? 

Frank: UVM gave me a lot – in my education, in my life connections, and my friends. And I wanted to pay it back in my time. UVM is a very dynamic liberal arts school with one of the best medical schools in the country, the business school is really good, the sciences are really strong. We’re building a really great engineering program. And the biggest import is people – it’s those people that matriculate and then develop lifelong relationships with Vermont.

Blaise: Let’s shift gears to VCET, which UVM’s Dr. John Evans founded and you helped launch in the early 2000s. We’ve received a lot of support from Senator Patrick Leahy over the years, and certainly wouldn’t be where we are today without him. Why do you think he took a liking to VCET?

Frank: Primarily because his dad was an entrepreneur and owned a printing press in Montpelier. He grew up in that environment. Even though he went into law, he always wanted to try to help entrepreneurship. He also knew how important IBM was, because he was around during that time in Vermont. He wanted to build the infrastructure to support and develop entrepreneurship in the state, and he knew he could help attract resources to do that. And he did it. He’s the greatest guy. 

Blaise: Ok, and let’s close with a question I’ve asked to all our board members. Frank: What’s your perfect Vermont day?

Frank: My perfect Vermont day would be hiking and skiing on the same day. I’d go to Smuggs, hike, and then ski the back bowls. Then I’d bounce over to Stowe, drop into their woods area off Nose Dive and then take the Sensation lift back to Sterling Mountain and then ski the back bowls back to Smuggs. That would be the best day.

This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity. 

For a more in-depth profile of Frank’s contributions to Vermont, read this Vermont Business Magazine feature here. You can also find him on LinkedIn here.