Former Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal was presented with the Cyber Futures Award at the Cyber Futures Summit at the Georgia Cyber Center Oct. 20-22.
Georgia Cyber Center partners and leadership of the Cyber Future Foundation presented Deal with the award as a result of his work in developing the Georgia Cyber Center, located at 1 Eleventh St. on the Nathan Deal Campus for Innovation.
The former governor of Georgia from 2011 to 2019 sat down with former mayor of Augusta Deke Copenhaver to discuss bringing the Georgia Cyber Center from merely a concept to a powerhouse for cybersecurity and education in Augusta, Ga.
“His accolades and successes are numerous, but one of his greatest accomplishments is his vision for and bringing to fruition the Georgia Cyber Center,” Copenhaver said while introducing Deal.
Deal said that when he heard that the U.S. Army was considering moving its cybersecurity school from Maryland to Fort Gordon in 2013, local leaders decided to do something to make it go beyond just the U.S. Army and Fort Gordon, and the idea for the Cyber Center was born.
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“We had some futuristic leaders in our state government and in rather short order, we decided to build the first facility for purposes of education,” Deal said. “Dr. Brooks Keel of Augusta University, who is here today, was on board from the beginning, as was Jim Hull and Will McKnight, for whom the first building is named. They said they wanted to be a part of this.”
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In terms of the economic impact of the Center in its first few years, Deal said that he didn’t have concrete numbers in front of him, but the fact that a 20-year bond package was going to be paid off in five years spoke for itself.
“That is unheard of for government to be able to do that,” Deal said. “You will see that this is a true public-private partnership with education as a centerpiece.”
Copenhaver said that the Center’s success is an example that governments, while often slow-moving, can indeed innovate.
“Everybody wants to claim something they did while they’ve been in office,” Deal said “If you’re in a hurry to make a mark, you can sometimes get in too big a hurry and you don’t have the ground work done to create a success. We were able to set aside personal agendas for this project.”
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Deal said that there can be reservations about spending taxpayer dollars when private corporations are involved.
“This was a situation where the private companies put their own money into the pot to make it work,” he said. “It was a true public-private partnership. Oftentimes, I’m not sure how public some are or how private some are.”
Copenhaver said the collaboration on the Cyber Center is a model for other cities to follow when it comes to local, state and federal government working with private industry and military to benefit the city, state and region.
“Billy Payne, former chairman of Augusta National, told me he was going to make the Masters the premier sporting event in the world,” Copenhaver said. “I took that as a call to action that everything we focus on in Augusta should be about allowing us to become the preeminent midsize city in the U.S., and [the Georgia Cyber Center] puts in a position to do that.”
Tyler Strong is the Business Editor for The Augusta Press. Reach him at tyler@theaugustapress.com
