{"id":18752,"date":"2017-11-03T20:34:16","date_gmt":"2017-11-03T12:34:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/bugged-by-budget-cuts-state-aerospace-chief-john-thornquist-says-hes-moving-on\/"},"modified":"2017-11-03T20:34:16","modified_gmt":"2017-11-03T12:34:16","slug":"bugged-by-budget-cuts-state-aerospace-chief-john-thornquist-says-hes-moving-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/bugged-by-budget-cuts-state-aerospace-chief-john-thornquist-says-hes-moving-on\/","title":{"rendered":"Bugged by budget cuts, state aerospace chief John Thornquist says he\u2019s \u2018moving on\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_374592\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-374592\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-374592\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/171103-thornquist4-630x463.jpg\" alt=\"John Thornquist at Chinook Enterprises\" width=\"630\" height=\"463\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/171103-thornquist4-630x463.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/171103-thornquist4.jpg 723w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-374592\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">John Thornquist, the director of Washington state\u2019s Office of Aerospace, visits Chinook Enterprises in Mount Vernon, Wash., in August 2016. (Chinook Enterprises Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The head of Washington state\u2019s Office of Aerospace, John Thornquist, says he\u2019s returning to the private sector next month due to frustrations over state budget cuts.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m not trying to leave in a huff,\u201d said Thornquist, who was named to the post by Gov. Jay Inslee 19 months ago. \u201cI loved the job that we were doing for aerospace, but things have moved on, and I\u2019m moving on.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Thornquist said he tendered his resignation a couple of weeks ago, and will be leaving his job in the Department of Commerce\u2019s Office of Economic Development and Competitiveness, or OEDC, on Dec. 8 after tying up loose ends.<\/p>\n<p>After a weekend off, he\u2019ll start his new job as director of consulting services for Bellevue, Wash.-based Cascade Business Group. Thornquist said he\u2019ll continue to focus on aerospace as well as the software and retail industries.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"NewSpace 2016 - Welcome to Washington\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/v2Bb5k4f-S4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Thornquist said the OEDC has been hard-hit by budget reductions over the past few years. Most recently, the funding for international trade assistance has been reduced by 60 percent, he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou get frustrated with the Legislature, and opportunities come up, and you say, \u2018You know what? Maybe it\u2019s time to make a change,&#8217;\u201d he told GeekWire.<\/p>\n<p>Washington state\u2019s aerospace industry is in the midst of a series of significant transitions. On the space side, relatively new companies such as SpaceX, Spaceflight Industries and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos\u2019 Blue Origin are raising their profile in the state. At the same time, traditional aerospace employers such as the Boeing Co. are facing new competitive challenges.<\/p>\n<p>Boeing\u2019s workforce in Washington state has had to weather significant layoffs during Thornquist\u2019s tenure, and there could be tough negotiations ahead as the aerospace giant mulls production of a new middle-of-the-market airplane known unofficially as the 797.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs a state, we have to make sure that we protect the aerospace jobs that we have,\u201d Thornquist said. He noted that the aerospace industry\u2019s family-wage jobs are the envy of many other states, and \u201cthey would love to take those jobs from us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Thornquist\u2019s departure was first reported by Puget Sound Business Journal, which quoted Inslee\u2019s office as saying that the Department of Commerce is looking at candidates to fill his spot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>John Thornquist, the director of Washington state\u2019s Office of Aerospace, visits Chinook Enterprises in Mount Vernon, Wash., in August 2016. (Chinook Enterprises Photo) The head of Washington state\u2019s Office of Aerospace, John Thornquist, says he\u2019s returning to the private sector next month due to frustrations over state budget cuts. \u201cI\u2019m not trying to leave in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[39,4396],"class_list":["post-18752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-aerospace","tag-tech-moves"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18752"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18752\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}