(upbeat music) - Hi, everyone.

Steve Adubato.

We kick off the program with a long time friend of the show, Aisha Glover, Global Head of Urban Innovation at Audible.

This is part of our "Urban Matters Series."

Good to see you, Aisha.

- Great to see you.

- Good.

We got the website up for Audible.

Let's do this.

The most significant urban economic development initiatives that Audible's engaged in right now would be?

- Our Business Attraction Program.

So, we're bringing startups and retail into Newark.

We've gotten over a dozen leases signed within the past year alone.

So, we're creating jobs.

We're not just building off of the momentum of us being headquartered here, but we're investing in that next generation of tech startups.

- You know, I'm driving downtown to a basketball game down at the Prudential Center.

You go down, for those who have had the good fortune, those of us born and raised in Newark, if you just drive down Bloomfield Avenue onto Broad Street and you see the big sign, Audible sign on the right hand side.

- That's right.

- It's significant on so many levels.

- Indeed.

- Why is Audible and Don Katz... Google Don Katz, who just was put into the New Jersey Hall of Fame.

Check out Don Katz, our longtime friend.

Why is it so significant?

Not just that that sign for Audible is there, but that Audible is there?

- Yeah, our founder Don Katz made that decision in 2007 really wanting to be part of the city's revitalization.

So, people are usually surprised when we say, "This is our global headquarters.

We moved here on purpose."

And I think was a real kind of vote of confidence, not just in the direction that the city was heading, but the role that a company like an Audible can play as the fastest growing private employer here.

So, it's critically important for us to be based in this city.

I think it really speaks to the infrastructure, the residents, the legacy of the city, but also the future on where it's heading.

- Future connect to the past.

Harriet Tubman.

By the way, look at our website, steveadubato.org.

The piece that Jacqui Tricarico and myself did on Harriet Tubman as part of our, "Remember Them Series."

Harriet Tubman Square is?

- It's our home.

It's our front yard.

You know, the Tubman Park is right across the street from our Innovation Cathedral, which is also right across the street from 33 Washington, where we're making a major investment and bringing more retail into the neighborhood.

You know, we raised our hand and told the city we wanted to add to the monument and we did just that.

So, there's an audio experience there as well.

That power of storytelling, you know?

Continues right in our front yard.

- P.S.

Google Harriet Tubman, The Underground Railroad and understand a part of American history that's incredibly important.

- That's right.

- Try this for, I'm curious about this.

Audible's Future Leaders Program.

As a student of leadership, I'm fascinated by how we develop the next generation of leaders.

What is the Audible Future Leaders Program?

- So, it's a pretty innovative internship program.

You know, every corporation or many corporations, I should say, run internship programs, and you probably have an idea of what that looks like.

In the summer, highly competitive, dare I say elite.

And typically for college students, we've done the opposite.

It is 100% local, so it is open to high school, Newark High School students.

We started offering it the year we moved here in 2007.

We're working with students and hiring them a year round and paying them, again, beginning in high school.

And they get a full kind of immersion experience.

So, we're focused on skills development.

They don't have to necessarily want to come into the industry, but getting this level of exposure this early on has shown to really benefit them in college, on their applications, with follow on internships, you name it.

And they're pretty impressive group of students every year.

- One of the things about doing anything in Newark or any urban community or any challenging initiative is collaboration is key.

There is a collaboration between Audible and a company we know well, Fidelco.

- That's right.

- And going all the way back to the late great Marc Berson who, what an innovator, what an entrepreneur- - He was.

- Who believed in Newark when a lot of other folks did not.

And Kerri his daughter leading the effort there as well.

But also the New Jersey Economic Development Authority.

Talk to us about collaboration because Audible cannot do it alone.

No one can.

Go ahead.

- That's right.

And we shouldn't want to, right?

We've been a tenant essentially of Fidelco since we moved here.

So, both of our locations, Innovation Cathedral and 1 Wash, Fidelco is the owner.

And so, we've been collaborating with them since 2007.

Now, what that looks like is more than the majority of the businesses that we've brought in have actually gone into 550 Broad, a Fidelco building right across the street from us.

So, we're focused on the entire Tubman Square.

We collaborate with all of the property owners, but Fidelco really does kind of stand apart carrying on Marc Berson's legacy, but really doubling down and they kinda just get it, right?

So, they're key collaborators with us and investors, as well as NJEDA investing in and supporting many of the businesses that we've brought in with lease subsidies and assistance.

Some of them are major recipients of the recent Art Fund Grant that came out.

- Yep.

- Such as Equal Space.

I know they've been on with you as well.

- Absolutely.

- So, I think it really matters to your point, like, this collaboration, we can't do it alone.

And so, sometimes it's funding, sometimes it's networking, exposure, ecosystem building, all of that kind of dot connecting and to have collaborators like a Fidelco, like NJEDA, like the City of Newark, that understand the value of investing in a very intentional way and supporting in that way.

You know, it's been, it's made my job a lot easier, and quite frankly, a lot more fun.

- Last question.

You call it a job, Aisha, but you've been with us a lot many times, and your passion, your personal, as well as your professional commitment to Newark, to helping rebuild and improve the city of Newark is very deep.

Why?

- That's right.

- Well, grew up in Brooklyn and as much as I love Jersey, I would have purchased and stayed in Brooklyn if I could have, right?

And so, you know, essentially I got priced out.

And when people talk about displacement or gentrification and talk about equity and access, that just, it's just, you know, it runs true to my core.

And so, if I can have any part in making sure that as the city develops, it develops equitably and that we're leveraging Audible's commitment and sense of purpose to this work, it kind of, you know, it's a bit of a dream job.

But I am where exactly I'm supposed to be and really looking out for the underdogs.

Marginalized people, underrepresented voices, and how do we make sure that as the city grows and as Audible grows everyone benefits.

- Aisha Glover making a difference every day in the city of Newark with her colleagues at Audible and others.

Thank you, Aisha, my friend.

- Appreciate it.

- Thank you.

Great to see you.

- See you again, very soon.

Stay with us.

We'll be right back.

- [Narrator] One-On-One with Steve Adubato is a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Funding has been provided by The New Jersey Education Association.

The New Jersey Economic Development Authority.

Kean University.

Holy Name.

The Fidelco Group.

PSE&G.

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey.

NJM Insurance Group.

And by The North Ward Center.

Promotional support provided by NJ.Com.

And by New Jersey Monthly.

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