Twenty Under 40 Q-and-A: Edward Jones' Ryan Nelson

RENO, Nev. — In November, the Reno-Tahoe Young Professionals Network announced the winners of its annual Twenty Under 40 Awards.

We at the NNBW feel it's important for people of all ages, background and professions to have a voice about the current state of business in Northern Nevada.

With the region's economic future in mind, NNBW Reporter Kaleb M. Roedel is conducting a Q-and-A with each of the 2019 winners; interviews will be published throughout the year. Go to renotahoeypn.com to learn more about Reno-Tahoe YPN. Read this week's Q-and-A below:

Q: What do you see as the top one or two biggest economic development opportunities for Northern Nevada in 2020 and beyond?

Nelson: Obviously, our state has some tax advantages for large corporations. There's a reason there's lots of them moving here. It seems like, whether it's true or not, people tend to say Reno is maybe insulated from the next recession because of the constant influx.

With what's going on with PG&E (in California), they're expecting these rolling blackouts for the next 10 years … If it's one summer, you're probably not going to up and leave. But, if it's your sixth year of dealing with this, at what point do you say, ‘OK, I need to go somewhere else'? For a lot of Northern California (companies), we're probably an easy destination with the income tax laws.

Q: Why is it important for younger professionals to have a seat at the table when it comes to the business community in Northern Nevada?

Nelson: I think that, hopefully, we're the future, right? If we don't have a say until we're no longer the younger professionals, we're not really going to have much of an influence. And I think that the younger generation helps with diversification — age is just another way to diversify. And typically the older generation sees things different than the younger, and we're eventually going to be the older generation and we're going to see things different than the younger at that time. And neither is better or worse, they're just going to be different, and everybody deserves to be represented.

I think from a business perspective, we need to continue to innovate as a society, and if all of the younger generation is just working for the older generation, there's probably a lack of innovation. So I think, definitely, people going out and creating their own businesses continue to create that innovative cycle, which is really how America got to where it is. It's in our foundation; hopefully, we can keep it going.

Q: What under the radar industry or industries have the biggest opportunity for growth in Northern Nevada?

Nelson: From a business standpoint, I'm not an expert on this, but I believe our inventory taxes are lower. Obviously, if you're a company that holds inventory, that's going to be an advantage and give some of those manufacturing and warehouse distribution centers more of a leg up.

I know being on the I-80 corridor is important for transportation, and the railroad system that we have coming through here is one of the major railroad lines in the country. So a lot of those distribution centers can benefit from that. There's probably a reason why we have these industrial centers going up and they seem to be doing manufacturing and distribution.

Q: Where do you see the greater Reno-Sparks region in five years?

Nelson: Hard to say, right? It's like when you're working out and look in the mirror every day and don't see any differences … It's funny, I look at Reno every day and I don't know if I personally can see a lot of the changes going on while I hear about all of this growth. I don't know if on a day-to-day I can actually see it. So, it really is hard to predict where we'll be or where we're headed. Hopefully, we're about to enter a period of rapid growth, and that's going to come with some negatives and some positives. Depending on your value systems, you may like the idea of Reno growing or you might hate the idea of Reno growing. Either way, I think that Reno five years from now is going to be quite a bit bigger than what we are at now, and I'm sure it's going to grow faster than the national average.

Q: If you could change one thing for the better about your community, what would it be?

Ryan Nelson: I don't know if it's currently bad, but it can always get better in the sense of giving back to our community. My understanding is, proportionally to our population, we actually have quite a lot of nonprofits in our community, so I think it's actually something we're good at. But, I would still love for that to be improved.

For instance, when I give back to the community, in a lot of ways I benefit more than whatever I'm giving back to. While we have a lot of nonprofits, I still think, in general, if we polled everyone in Reno-Sparks and Carson Valley, there's going to be less people involved with nonprofits than are involved with nonprofits. Could you imagine a community in which 80%, 90%, 100% of the community is involved in a nonprofit? I think the biggest impact would come from not their input into the nonprofits but just the fact that every single person has the mindset of contributing and building the community. And it's contagious. And when you surround yourself by other people doing the same thing, now all of a sudden it's the norm and it changes people's mindsets. I think it's already good in our community, but I would love to see it get better.